ABSTRACT
In Rome, the Baroque painters active from the late sixteenth century through about 1670 generally fall into two categories. The first, exemplified by Caravaggio, either decorated chapel walls or produced individual pictures for private patrons, or did both. The other, of which Giovanni Battista Gaulli is a prime example, created dazzling church ceilings intended to glorify the Christian message. Michelangelo Merisi, who painted at the turn of the sixteenth century, is known by the name of his native town of Caravaggio in northern Italy. The convincing illusionistic character of the fruit justifies Caravaggio's reputation as the advocate of a new kind of realism. Determined to liberate painting from the affectations of Mannerism as well as from High Renaissance classicism, Caravaggio often produced difficult, controversial works. In Caravaggio's picture, consistent with iconographic tradition, the light knocks Saul from his horse, and he falls toward the picture plane.
