La biografia di Michelangelo da Caravaggio nelle Vite di Gaspare Celio

Descrizione

Storia dell’arte 151-152, Gennaio-Dicembre 2019

Riccardo Gandolfi

La biografia di Michelangelo da Caravaggio nelle Vite di Gaspare Celio

For the first time ever, this study considers the unpublished biography of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. written by the Roman painter Gaspare Celio. Dating back to the first half of second decade of the XVII century, it is one of the earlier biographical text dedicated to the Lombard artist. Remarkable information has been suggested by this reliable source, focusing particularly on the probable murder, committed by Michelangelo Merisi in Milan (fact already mentioned by Bellori, who clearly took his inspiration from Celio’s previous work) and moreover the part that Prospero Onori played in Merisi’s success, now even more evidently. Thanks to this unpublished biography, it is also possible to analyse the reaction that the Roman artists, who were still under the strong influence on Mannerism, had against the exceptional – and unjustified for some – Caravaggio’s success.