Caravaggio

Caravaggio is my favourite painter, maybe because of his realism or the fascination of his portraits or maybe because of his difficult temper. Here in Rome you can see 6 paintings by Caravaggio simply going into a church. It’s amazing, indeed. So you can start visiting the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Piazza del Popolo. On the left of the high altar, there are two paintings: The Conversion of St. Paul

and  The Crucifixion of St. Peter

Then if you go on Via del Corso, when you arrive at Piazza Colonna, you go on the right and you reach the churh of San Luigi dei Francesi. Here there are: St. Matthew and the Angel,

The Calling of St. Matthew

and The Martyrdom of St. Matthew.

Lastly going round the corner on the left of San Luigi dei Francesi you find the church of Sant’Agostino which shows the  Madonna of Loreto.

Other paintings are in the museums as for example the  Pinacoteca capitolina and the Galleria Borghese. You know the extraordinary realism of the works by Cravaggio about which you can read in any guide-book, but let the humanity of his paintings ravish you. The background is Rome between the Sixteenth Century and the Seventeenth Century marked by riots, turbulence and many social and religious problems. Going out in the evening could be very dangerous. Of course there were people like Caravaggio who were looking for dangerous situations.

So enjoy these masterpieces.