Lorem Ipsum: June 2011

Young Sick Bacchus

1593

Likely a self-portrait of the artist when he

came to Rome (from Milan) and fell seriously ill.

From Wikipedia:

"Infamous while he lived, Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, and it was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. Despite this, his influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from the ruins of Mannerism, was profound. It can be seen directly or indirectly in the work of Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Bernini, and Rembrandt, and artists in the following generation heavily under his influence were called the 'Caravaggisti' or 'Caravagesques', as well as Tenebrists or 'Tenebrosi' ('shadowists'). Andre Berne-Joffroy, Paul Valéry's secretary, said of him: 'What begins in the work of Caravaggio is, quite simply, modern painting.^'"
^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo_Merisi_da_Caravaggio}