This is the earliest known work by Caravaggio, painted soon after his arrival in Rome from his native Milan in mid 1592.
His movements in this period are not certain. According to his contemporary Giulio Mancini he stayed for a short time with Monsignor Pandulfo
Pucci in the Palazzo Colonna, but disliked the way Pucci treated him and left after a few months.
More Info.
Year 1592–1593
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 75.5 × 64.4 cm (29.7 × 25.4 in)
Location Longhi Collection, Florence.
The Young Sick Bacchus (Italian: Bacchino Malato), also known as the Sick Bacchus or the Self-Portrait as Bacchus,
is an early self-portrait, dated between 1593 and 1594. It now hangs in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. According to Caravaggio's first biographer,
Giovanni Baglione, it was a cabinet piece painted by the artist using a mirror.
More Info.
Year 1593
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 67 × 53 cm (26 × 21 in)
Location Galleria Borghese, Rome.
The painting dates from the time when Caravaggio, newly arrived in Rome from his native Milan, was making his way in the
competitive Roman art world. The model was his friend and companion, the Sicilian painter Mario Minniti, at about 16 years old.
More Info.
Year 1593
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 70 × 67 cm (28 × 26 in)
Location Galleria Borghese, Rome.
The painting was completed ca. 1594–1595, during which time Caravaggio was residing with
Giuseppe Cesari and Fantin Petrignani.[5] The painting was almost certainly commissioned by Pietro Vittrice,
guardaroba of Pope Gregory XIII.[6] Caravaggio was known to have used several prostitutes as models for his
works, and historians have speculated that Anna Bianchini is featured in this painting. Contemporary biographers
indicate Bianchini may also have featured in Caravaggio's Death of the Virgin, Conversion of the Magdalen (as Martha)
and Rest on the Flight into Egypt (as the Virgin Mary). It may be the first religious painting ever completed by Caravaggio.
More Info.
Year 1594 - 1595
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions122.5 × 98.5 cm (42.2 × 38.8 in)
Location Doria Pamphilj Gallery, Rome
Caravaggio entered the household of Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte sometime in 1595, and The Musicians is
thought to have been his first painting done expressly for the cardinal. His biographer, the painter Baglione, says he "painted
for the Cardinal youths playing music very well drawn from nature and also a youth playing a lute," the latter presumably being
The Lute Player, which seems to form a companion-piece to The Musicians.
More Info.
Year 1595
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 92 × 118.5 cm (36 × 46.7 in)
Location Museum of Art, New York City.
The affected pose may have been the inevitable result of the experiment Caravaggio appears to have been undertaking
here: observing and recording acute emotions – surprise and fear – in a situation where real surprise was impossible and where
the pose had to be held for a considerable period.
More Info.
Year 1594–1596
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 66× 49.5 cm (26 × 19.5 in)
Location National Gallery, London.
The appearance of second originals is a feature of a new understanding of Caravaggio's work,
and indeed Vincenzo Giustiniani, whose experience was closely related to the artist's career, describes in his Discorso
sulla pittura the painter's development as beginning with copying others’ work - ‘Proceeding further, he can also copy
his own work, so that the replica may be as good, and even sometimes better, than the first’. The procedure for making
a second version was, however, substantially different from the sometimes very arduous task of building a group from many
separate observations of reality, of figures and objects; it is natural that the ‘second original’ is sometimes more fluent than the first.
More Info.
Year 1596
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 94× 119 cm (37 × 47 in)
Location Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
Caravaggio is not only attempting to depict Bacchus, but also a boy dressed up as Bacchus. It Is a sensual scene inviting
the viewer to succumb to their carnal desires. The boy is youthful and handsome, round yet muscular. He barely makes an attempt
to keep his robes on as he coaxes the viewer to join him with a suggestive look in his eye.
More Info.
Year 1596
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 95 × 85 cm (37 × 33 in)
Location Uffizi, Florence.
Depicting the exact moment she was executed by Perseus. He plays with the concept by replacing Medusa's face with his own, as an indication
of his immunity to her dreadful gaze. Due to its bizarre and intricate design, the painting is said to complement Caravaggio's unique fascination with
violence and realism. It was commissioned by Italian diplomat Francesco Maria del Monte as a means of giving it to the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
More Info.
Year 1597
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 60 × 55 cm (24 × 22 in)
Location Uffizi, Florence.