He'll hit you in the nose

I sketched.

And sketched.

Then tonight, at about 11:30, a sketch that was bearable to my eyes, but still unbloggable, rested under my hands.

I began to think about what Caravaggio saw when he was about to sketch. The look on his face and the image in his mind. How he would do it. Pencil or charcoal? Would he do it when he woke up? On an empty stomach? Did it matter? All i knew was that i was growing increasingly frustrated with this whole sketching business...so I decided to take a break and research my mentor... I soon discovered that Caravaggio was very familiar with frustration :)

Caravaggio

I delved into his life story. I learnt that he had been orphaned at 11 and that same year he apprenticed to a painter. He soon went to Rome and met the man who would provide him with a pseudo family environment in the form of a home and food, Cardinal Francesco del Monte.

With this stability he was able to establish himself as a painter and by 24 was renowned for his work. It was around this time that he began to paint some rather controversial images, most notably of Saint Matthew argueing with an angel.

His temper also began to make an occasional appearance. In 1603 he punched another painter in the nose...a year later he threw a plate at a waiter...then stones at some Roman Gaurds.

(at this point i'm thinking...right so should i start throwing canvases around Painting class tommorow and whacking my intructor with some Acrylics to channel some Caravaggioness? )

Things got worse from here on out. It was less about the painting and more about his mood and fights. It all climaxed when he killed a man in a fight at a bar - it is rumoured - either over a sports match or the courtesan Fillide Melandroni (who he used as a model frequently).

Either way he degenrated psychologically. He was banished from Rome. In the summer of 1610....a confused series of movements and decisions led to his early death.


Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610).

He had 3 paintings with him the last time he was seen, allegedly gifts for Cardinal Scipione. He never once stopped. I'm convived it was the only thing that kept him alive.

Imagining the sequences of actions that lead to his death and mindset was incrediby tiring. I gave up.