Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio was a 17th century Baroque artist, whose works have been said be the best of Western painting. His paintings were full of technique and very detailed realism. Some of the things he painted at the time could be described as, disturbing. Caravaggio was a bit of a troubled soul, who was always running from the law. He was orphaned early in life, that’s when he found painting. Despite his tumultuous life he managed to create many masterpieces that would go on to influence future artists. Caravaggio was born in 1571, in Lombardy, Italy. His father Fermo Merisi was a steward and architect, who caught the bubonic plague and died when Caravaggio was 6 years old. Soon after that, when he was 11 years old his mother Lucia Aratori also passed away, leaving Caravaggio an orphan. It has been said that he lived such a troubled…show more content… While in Rome he lived in poverty, in order to keep himself alive he assisted and helped other painters. All the while he was painting his own masterpieces. Eventually he branched out on his own and started selling his own collection through a dealer to make ends meet. By doing this Caravaggio was able to get his works out to the public. One of the people who noticed and loved his paintings was, Cardinal Francesco Del Monte. The Cardinal loved his works so much that he asked Caravaggio to come live at his home and offered him a pension. While living with the Cardinal, Caravaggio became very popular. Within a couple of years he was given the job of painting the Contarelli Chapel in the Church of San Luigi Dei Francesi in Rome. At this time he was only 26 years old. The church asked him to paint different times of St. Matthews’s life. Getting the opportunity to paint religious works for the church opened the door for many more future paintings in the same genre. People loved how real he could portray the scenes he was