Caravaggio (1571 - 1610)

• Was an Italian painter.
• Following his initial training under Simone Peterzano, in 1592, Caravaggio left Milan for Rome in flight after "certain quarrels" and the wounding of a police officer.
• The young artist arrived in Rome "naked and extremely needy... without fixed address and without provision... short of money."
• During this period, he stayed with the miserly Pandolfo Pucci, known as "monsignor Insalata".
• In Rome, there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palaces being built at the time. • Caravaggio's first paintings on religious themes returned to realism and the emergence of remarkable spirituality.
• The first of these was the Penitent Magdalene, showing Mary Magdalene at the moment when she has turned from her life as a courtesan and sits weeping on the floor, her jewels scattered around her.
• The displayed painting is a crop from: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Sleeping Cupid.
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