Artist Fights the Inquisition in Caravaggio: Painter on the Run

Since antiquity, artists of all kinds have challenged regimes that have demanded mindless conformity. In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church dominated, and the greatest thinkers of the time prospered by doing its work (Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel) or suffered by challenging its dogma (Galileo being a prominent example). The painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was one of those rebels; his ambitiousness drove him to seek approval at the same time as his passionate artistic vision made it impossible to attain.

In Caravaggio: Painter on the Run, Marissa Moss captures the essence of this sixteenth century artistic genius for teen and adult readers. The story begins with Caravaggio in prison, one of many stints behind bars. He recalls coming to Rome as a teenager seeking apprenticeship with a wealthier and more prestigious painter and meeting lifelong friend Mario Minitti in the process. Right away he clashes with the master Cesare d’Arpino because young Caravaggio wants to use models from real life rather than sacred images. Furthermore, his models are prostitutes and drunks, the people he meets in his nightly forays to the city’s taverns.

When people notice the young painter’s talent, it only encourages him to want more. Moss captures artistic ambitions and the corrosive effects of envy. Young Caravaggio, whose first name is Michelangelo, wants to be the Michelangelo, supplanting a painter and sculptor who has already achieved international renown. He is destined to fail, but his increasingly provocative efforts push artistic achievement as well as the Church-imposed moral standards of the time. As Caravaggio plays Church rivals to get his own commission to St. Peter’s in the Vatican, the stakes increase.

Moss’s novel based on real life is a page-turner with heft, as readers follow Caravaggio’s growth as an artist and the choices he makes. Many of those are self-destructive as his personal life and weaknesses intrude on his professional aspirations and he becomes dependent on others to constantly bail him out. One may think this novel, published by award winning small press Creston Books, is a tale of life long ago, but it is also an important story for our time. A time line and extensive author’s note clarify the events that are true, the scenes and characters that are invented, and what we yet do not know.