As part of the current fourth centennial programme marking the death of the artist Michaelangelo Merisi, better known as Caravaggio, an exhibition of hitherto forgotten documents throws new light on events in the life of this irascible and restless genius.
Caravaggio a Roma Una Vita dal Vero (Caravaggio in Rome a Documented Life) is the result of exhaustive research carried out by a dedicated team of art historians, palaeographers, archivists and historians, who spent months combing through stacks of 16 nth century files languishing among the thousands of documents stored in 60 kms of shelving in the Rome State Archives. Many of the documents they unearthed were in such poor condition that they risked being lost forever. Some 30 volumes were so badly corroded, with ink eating into the pages, that they were practically illegible. Seven dedicated restorers took on the painstaking and delicate task of preservation work. In the process, they uncovered unknown facts and resolved some unexplained episodes regarding the artists stay in Rome.
Eugenio Lo Sardo, curator of the State Archives at Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, Rome, described the operation as the equivalent of a detective story, where experts followed up clues to piece together the missing links in Merisi's life. The documents include police reports on brawls involving Caravaggio and his unruly cronies, the official transcripts of the libel action brought against him by a rival artist and the contract of the house he rented and where he painted The Death of the Virgin.
The documents have allowed experts to chart the artistâ ten year sojourn in Rome, correcting many errors or unknown facts. They prove, for example, that he arrived in the papal city in 1596, and not in 1592-93 as was generally believed, and thus alter the dating of some of his earlier works. They throw light on his relationship with the family of the Sicilian artist Lorenzo Carli, whose studio he worked in between 1596 and 1597. They include a fascinating physical description of Merisi himself, supplied by the boy employed by his barber: he speaks milanese, no rather lombard...he's about 28...not very white in the face but not very dark either...he dresses in black....sometimes tidy and sometimes not...he wears a black felt hat on his head. Also on exhibit is the salvaged tome containing the full account of the libel accusation brought by Giovanni Baglione, including the offensive poems Caravaggio and his gang bombarded him with. The 1604 registration of the rent contract drawn up with the landlady Prudenzia Bruni reveals that the artist had obtained her permission to remove part of the ceiling in his apartment-studio in Vicolo San Biagio (now known as Vicolo del Divino Amore), probably to make room for the enormous panels and canvasses he was working on in that period.
Merisi was a born troublemaker and he was often involved in brushes with the law for unruly behaviour, street fights and going around armed illegally. Many of these incidents are well-known but they are brought vividly to life when you read first hand the fascinating account of the libel suit brought by Giovanni Baglione in 1603 against Michelangelo Merisi and his drinking cronies, Orazio Gentileschi, Onorio Longhi and Filippo Trisegni. Described in meticulous legal language, the pages also contain the abusive doggerel that so offended Baglione. Peppered with obscenities that give insight into typical tavern language of the time, the poems ridicule Baglione as a worthless painter. Caravaggio, however, defended himself brilliantly before the investigating magistrate by explaining what he believed was the difference between good artists and unworthy artists, citing the names of several contemporaries in the two categories. Peace was finally made with Merisi agreeing to rehabilitate Baglione by including him in his list of worthy artists. However, his rival did not forget the slight. He got his revenge many years later when he described Caravaggio in his Life of Painters: he died badly, just as he had lived badly.
It is generally claimed that Caravaggio was homosexual but, as Michele Di Sivo, exhibition curator along with Orietta Verdi, points out, there is no real evidence to support this. The notion hinges on a reference to a bardassa named Giovanni Battista, who apparently was part of the band (although Merisi denies knowing the boy). This term, Di Siva explains, was also used simply to describe an apprentice. In another police report, dated 29 July 1605, Caravaggio is accused of assaulting the notary Mariano Pasqualoni in Piazza Navona because of a woman called Lena, who is his mistress. This Lena is thought to have been his model for the “Madonna dei Pellegrini.
A fine 17 nth century map by Antonio Tempesta and Giovanni Maggi on display shows the area of Rome in the Campo Marzio known as the contrada della Scrofa, most intimately linked with Caravaggio. The State Archives at Sant Ivo alla Sapienza are on the same street as Palazzo Madama, seat of Italys Senate House, but once the residence of Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, one of Merisis wealthy patrons. Caravaggio's Roman period revolved, in fact, almost entirely around the area where the archives are situated. The nearby Via della Scrofa, just behind the Pantheon, was a bustling artists' and artisan quarter where Lorenzo Carli's studio was situated and is a stones throw from the churches of San Luigi dei Francesi and Sant'Agostino which contain some of his most celebrated works. This cramped part of Rome contained the taverns he caroused in, the barbers shop he frequented and the house he rented before he was forced to flee after the episode with the notary Pasqualoni, abandoning all his possessions.
The selection of paintings in the exhibition are all relevant to Merisi's story. There are a selection of works by the artists Caravaggio judged worthy or unworthy and the Caraffe of Flowers by Jan Brueghel the Elder, believed to have influenced Caravaggio's still lifes. There are also the portraits of the two Popes who reigned during the period: Clement VIII, attributed to Cavalier D'Arpino, and Paul V Borghese by Caravaggio himself. Clement VIII was the implacable Pope of the Counter Reformation. Two illustrious victims of his moral clampdown were the philosopher Giordano Bruno and the tragic young noblewoman Beatrice Cenci, whose alleged portrait by Guido Reni is also on display. A true rarity is Caravaggio's portrait of Pope Paul V, which has only been made available once before to the public. This was the Pope who condemned Caravaggio to death for the murder of Ranuccio Tomassoni, brother of a local boss, and forced the artist to make his last fatal flight from Rome. He was never to return.
MARGARET STENHOUSE
Caravaggio in Rome: A Recorded Life runs until the 5 May 2011
Open every day from 9am-6.30pm, with guided tours of maximum 30 people at half hour intervals conducted by the same scholars who contributed to the discovery and restoration of the documents.
For information: www.mondomostre.it Tel. (0039)06/6613451
