Caravaggio and the Antique

Abstract

Caravaggio's contemporary Mannerist critics charged him with excessive naturalism and a lack of due regard for the antique, but a closer scrutiny of the artist's compositions reveals that several of them were based on Classical models, in some cases even referring to works which were known only from literary sources. Caravaggio frequently combined the study of the material vestiges of ancient art with a meticulous observation of nature - which to him was not an antithesis, but rather a necessary complement of the Classical tradition. The tracing of the antique inspiration of the Borghese Gallery Boy with the Basket of Fruit and the Boy with a Bunch of Grapes (formerly known as Bacchino Malato), of the Uffizi Bacchus, and also of the Capitoline St. John the Baptist with a Ram, the Uffizi Medusa, the Victorious Amor in Berlin-Dahlem, and the Sleeping Amor in the Pitti, provides not only a clearer insight into the meaning of each of these various pictures, but also a better understanding of Caravaggio's realism.

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