Caravaggio
On his death in 1610, the Italian painter, Caravaggio left behind a body of work which would revolutionize painting in Europe at the beginning of the 17th century. He gave his name to a pictorial movement, Caravaggism, which spread throughout Europe, from Italy to the Netherlands, passing through France and Spain.
Caravaggism's originality comes from the realism of its representations, with life-size figures, shafts of light falling on the subject and the dramatic force of chiaroscuro where impenetrable darkness swamps much of the canvas. Painters adapted the lessons of Caravaggism in their own fashion, but they were all inspired by the street, portraying tavern scenes, prostitutes, lute players or fortune tellers in their religious works. The Caravagesque revolution broke with the art of the Renaissance (15th and 16th century) and is distinctly different from the other artistic movements of the 17th century, Baroque and Classicism.
