Caravaggio (1571-1610): His Art and Times

This Zoom course is about one of the most important figures of the Baroque period, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. The lectures will focus on the years he spent in Rome between 1571 and 1610 executing important commissions for his patron the Cardinal Francesco del Monte. Caravaggio produced works depicting boys holding baskets of fruits, fortune tellers (1594), lute players (1596), and the like. Next, the focus will be on Caravaggio's more important religious commissions like the Chiesa San Luigi dei Francesi as we examine the life of St. Matthew. The class concludes with Caravaggio's largest masterpiece, executed while in Malta as the official artist of the Knights of St. John, his famous: Beheading of St John the Baptist (1608).