Casa parrocchiale caravaggio biography

Early Days

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was born near Milan in 1571, his father was an architect or decorator.

Five years later, to escape the plague which was rampaging through Milan at the time (killing his father in the process), the family moved to the town of Caravaggio near Bergamo, (from which their surname came). The young Caravaggio showed early talent as an artist, and when he turned 13, following his mother's death from the plague, he was apprenticed to the painter Simone Peterzano (c.1540-96), a former pupil of Titian and a follower of the Lombard school of art.

The Lombard style of painting valued simplicity and naturalism, and this was to have an important and lasting influence over the young painter and his style of art.

Naturalist Training

The fact of his training goes hand in hand with that of his critical reputation.

While he was still alive Federico Zuccaro