Caravaggio
Caravaggio, nickname of Michelangelo Merisi (1573-1610). Italian painter, one of the most influential artists of the Baroque period. He spent most of his career in Rome, where he painted numerous altarpieces and other sacred works. His work is noted for its realistic depiction of the human face and its strong contrasts of light and dark, as in his Supper at Emmaus. Caravaggio was notorious for his wild temper and style of life. After killing a man during an argument over a tennis match, he spent the last four years of his life in exile in Naples, Malta, and Sicily.
