4 Films About The Life And Art Of The Great Caravaggio

W ho Was Caravaggio?

Caravaggio, born Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, was one of the most influential painters of the 16th and 17th centuries. He is most notable for two things. Firstly, his large religious works were made with disturbing realism that often depicted intense violence and struggle. Secondly, for his bizarre and unstable behavior, which resulted in him committing murder and receiving a death sentence that he fled from.

Caravaggio’s Paintings and Legacy

His works of art have inspired and popularized many techniques and many great names in art history have shown elements of his influence. He largely employed a technique called "chiaroscuro", which later came to be known as tenebrism. This technique made dramatic use of the elements of light and shadow, his work featured profound contrast between those elements. He was known to place his subject or live model in areas where there was barely any natural light and then shine intense shafts of light in certain areas to bring out the emotional intensity of the scene. His most famous paintings include The Seven Acts of Mercy, Head of the Medusa, The Conversion of St. Paul, The Entombment of Christ, and The Beheading of St. John.

Films About Caravaggio and His Life’s Work

Many films have been made trying to capture his life and art from various angles and perspectives. Here is a list of movies about Caravaggio and his paintings.

Caravaggio (1968)

IMDb rating: 6.6/10

Directed by Derek Jerman, this 1986 Romance/Drama film opens to show a dying Caravaggio and we watch as he reminisces two of his greatest love affairs and his unstable and impetuous ways that ultimately lead to his ruin and early demise.

In this film, the manner in which he used to employ homeless people, drunks, and prostitutes as models for his largely religious, bordering on blasphemous, paintings, is chosen as a pivotal point to tell a fictionalized tale. While this film’s events are not entirely true, it captured his violent, unhinged, and reckless nature in an excellent performance by the main actor.

Caravaggio (2007)

IMDb rating: 6.9/10

This 3 hours long TV mini-series is based on the real-life events, embellished and dramatized, of the celebrated Renaissance painter. The controversial yet brilliant painter was known to be tempestuous, provocative, and sometimes borderline blasphemous in his grand religious paintings. Even so, he was widely loved until he was exiled for homicide. The movie starts and proceeds in a chronological fashion, beginning with his life as a child, going through the terrors of his first apprenticeships, and then taking us through his turbulent adolescence and adulthood.

Caravaggio: The Soul and Blood (2018)

IMDb rating: 6.6/10

A documentary based on the exciting and unsettling life of Caravaggio, it brilliantly depicts the sharply contrasting torments of his life. Much like his paintings, where he used sharp contrasts to convey his emotional depth, his life had sharp ups and downs. He was beloved as a painter and was relatively successful, but his personal life was tumultuous, his personality was explosive, and his days and nights were filled with mental torment, which he dealt with in two ways: creating the most soul-shattering pieces of art and by drinking, brawling, and being reckless. They say every genius has a hint of madness; nobody else could be a better personification of this than Michelangelo Caravaggio, who had more than just a hint. Filmed in the cities of Milan, Florence, Rome, Naples, and Malta, this documentary attempts to connect the viewer with the artist’s mind. His revolutionary pieces of art are shown, there are voice-overs and speeches that translate the happenings in the most accurate way possible.

Upcoming: Caravaggio’s Shadow (2021)

This upcoming film is set in the 1600s told from the perspective of the Catholic Church as they hire the services of the Vatican secret service to investigate matters related to the genius but violent painter, Caravaggio, once he is granted the death sentence for killing his rival. The Pope does so to decide whether or not to grant him the clemency Caravaggio requested before his death. The many truths about Caravaggio’s morality and wickedness, and his utilization of the homeless, drunks, prostitutes, etc. for his paintings come to light as the investigation proceeds. The film is directed by Michele Placido and it has no set release date.

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