1573-1610.
Italian painter,
celebrated teeth-gnashing madman, and
Chiaroscuro Incarnate. The
Goya of his time, and the most
controversial artist of his time. Caravaggio broke with
tradition and stopped
idealizing his subject matter; if the scene would have likely involved
blood, then,
dammit, there'd be blood. He still painted only
religious or
mythological scenes, though. Then again, seeing
Goliath, stone dead, neck broken, head laying at an impossible
angle, may have scared
people even more.
Caravaggio is the only pre-20th century artist that I've seen that had a vibrant black. When mixed with the crimsons he was so fond of, and the ultra-realistic portrayal, his paintings could almost seem alive. They were shocking back in their day. That is not to say that they lacked subtlety, however - Caravaggio's sense of proportion and composition is great, and his use of chiaroscuro-style lighting was flat-out revolutionary.
And, like Goya, his soul-mate, Caravaggio's painting style came from a deep-dark place - in this case, his fear and anger. You see, he wasn't your average upstanding young Italian; he assaulted several people over trivial matters, once killing a man for disputing a score during a tennis match. (McEnroe, eat your heart out.) Caravaggio did most of his later paintings while in hiding, awaiting a pardon from the Pope. His choice of blacks and reds, his insistence on 'keeping it real', the undercurrent of suffering and death in all of his paintings probably stems from this.
Caravaggio collapsed after a boat containing all of his worldly possesions had departed from the dock without him, and he died three days later.