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The later art of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), a seminal Italian Baroque painter. This video covers the years 1598-1610, and includes his most famous works. Much of his work is religious, with an unposed sense of the moment and, for me, too much blood and guts. There is a strong emphasis on the emotion of the subjects. Caravaggio is known for his use of light and shade - chiaroscuro - which also became known as tenebrism . This style, and his return to realism after the excesses of the Mannerists, has led some to consider him a father of...

The early art of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), a seminal Italian Baroque painter. This video covers the years 1591-1598, before his work took on a particularly violent and gory cast. Caravaggio is known for his use of light and shade - chiaroscuro - which also became known as tenebrism . This style, and his return to realism after the excesses of the Mannerists, has led some to consider him a father of modern painting. He was a substantial influence on Peter Paul Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Rembrandt. Music by Anthony Holborne (1545-1602) - first two...

Stormy Daniels as the Virgin Mary? “Virgin,” a show of photographs by Nika Nesgoda, opens Thursday at the Spur, the Southampton co-working space and social club. Inspired by Caravaggio, who used a prostitute model for “Death of the Virgin” in 1606, Nesgoda had adult-film actresses Stormy, Tera Patrick (who has since retired from the industry) and other porn stars pose as the Virgin Mother in 2002. “Stormy doesn’t care what other people think of her. She’s a free spirit,” Nesgoda told The Post. “My show’s a playful look at art history. Pornography is art that we deem excessive in a...

What is possibly one of the art world's greatest finds came about because some French homeowners wanted to fix a leaky roof. The 400-year-old work, which was found by accident in 2014 in an attic of a house in Toulouse, is thought to have been painted by Italian master Caravaggio, according to Old Masters expert Eric Turquin, who has been studying it for the past two years. The amazing find was discovered in a sealed-off part of the attic space, which had to be accessed in order to repair a leak. Named "Judith Beheading Holofernes," the painting represents the biblical...

Telegraph critic Mark Hudson wonders at the possible discovery of 100 Caravaggio works in Italy and says if confirmed it could throw fresh light on the artist's reputationThe prospect of a hundred newly discovered works by any great artist of the past is little short of astonishing. The entire oeuvres of several of great figures – Vermeer and Giorgione for example – barely gets into double figures. When you think that 200 works is a pretty respectable total for the average, world-changing old master, then the prospect of an extra hundred constitutes a massive increase, that is likely to significantly...

Human remains found in a church in Tuscany almost certainly belong to Renaissance artist Caravaggio, Italian researchers said. The team said they were 85% sure that the set of bones of a man who died in about 1610, aged between 38 and 40, were that of the painter. The remains had been kept in an ossuary in a church crypt in Porto Ercole, after reportedly being exhumed in 1956. Caravaggio was known for his "chiaroscuro" painting technique. The method, in which light and shadow are sharply contrasted, revolutionised painting. Mystery The researchers, from four Italian universities, said they believed Michelangelo...

A crypt in the Tuscan town of Porto Ercole, Italy, could contain the 400-year-old bones of artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, anthropologists said. A team from Bologna University and Ravenna University planned to use infrared scanners, CAT scans, DNA analysis and carbon dating to solve the mystery of where Caravaggio, a master of chiaroscuro lighting, was buried, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Friday. The crypt in Porto Ercole was the mostly likely of eight possible burial sites, said Caravaggio expert Maurizio Marini. Local church records said Caravaggio died in the town in 1610. On Wednesday, the anthropologists began sorting...

'Do you realise how much strength is needed to strangle a man?" asked Francesco Marino Mannoia. The magistrate listened carefully. "It can take as long as 10 minutes," Marino Mannoia went on, "and sometimes the victim slips out, bites and kicks. Some even manage to break free for a while. But at least it's a professional way of doing the job." This witness was genuine, magistrate Giovanni Falcone decided after listening to such insights into life in the Sicilian mafia. He considered Marino Mannoia an exceptionally bright and honest pentito - the Italian term for a mafioso who turns informant...

The Meaning of the Bridge of Angels The Bridge of Angels (in Italian, Ponte Sant'Angelo) spans the Tiber River in Rome. Only a few steps away from St. Peter's Basilica, the bridge reflects the psychological shift from secular to sacred the occurs when pilgrims crossed from the busy streets of Rome over to the churches of the Vatican. Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the famed Italian sculptor, originally designed the bridge's angel sculptures in the seventeenth century. Though few of the angels standing today were done by his hand, Bernini's vision for the bridge lives on. Five angel sculptures flank each...

Finally, what with a snow day and all, I have time to write one more installment of the history of art. Today’s “lesson” is Baroque art. Baroque art dates from 1600-1715 or so. (The dates are different with different media. The end of Baroque art coincides with the death of King Louis XIV in 1715; Baroque music ends with the death of Bach in 1750.) The expansion in Baroque artistic space reflects the expansion of political empires (into the New World) and the expansion of scientific knowledge (the invention of microscopes and telescopes: with space expanding outward and contracting inward)....