Caravaggio: Outlaw Painter

Art historian and artist Sean Crum reviews the life and work of Caravaggio, one of the original bad boys of the art world. Michelangelo Merisi, better known as Caravaggio after his birthplace, was one of the most important artists in history. He led a revolution in painting that would influence artists all over Europe from the Netherlands to Spain. His dark, contrasted paintings, known as "tenebrism," produced sharply spotlighted figures against deep, dark backgrounds. He became enormously successful, but he was also remarkedly ill behaved. He was listed in police records 14 times in a six-year period and was forced to flee Rome due to a murder charge. He went to Naples, to Malta, to Sicily, back to Naples, and then at the very moment his benefactors worked a pardon for him, he died mysteriously at age 38.