Caravaggio - Online Art Gallery

An immersive 3D gallery of Caravaggio's paintings, room by room through his life. Walk the corridors, approach each canvas, and ask the guide about it.

A gallery to walk through in the dark, room by room, following Caravaggio's life from his first years in Rome to his death on the way back from exile. A single raking light, the kind he painted with, falls where you point and reveals the paintings; a guide answers your questions about each of them.

Room I · The Early Years c. 1592–1597

Newly arrived in Rome from Lombardy, Caravaggio paints half-length figures, fruit and street life for the market, until Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte takes him into his household.

Boy Peeling Fruit, c. 1592–1593
Young Sick Bacchus, c. 1593
Boy with a Basket of Fruit, c. 1593
The Fortune Teller, c. 1594
The Cardsharps, c. 1595
The Musicians, c. 1595
Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy, c. 1595
Boy Bitten by a Lizard, c. 1595
The Lute Player, c. 1596
Bacchus, c. 1596
Penitent Magdalene, c. 1595–1597
Rest on the Flight into Egypt, c. 1597
Medusa, c. 1597

Room II · Rise to Fame c. 1598–1600

Portraits, sacred heroines and a first David, and then the commission that makes his name: the scenes of Saint Matthew for the Contarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi.

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1598
Martha and Mary Magdalene, c. 1598
Portrait of Maffeo Barberini, c. 1598
Basket of Fruit, c. 1599
Judith Beheading Holofernes, c. 1599
David and Goliath, c. 1599
The Calling of Saint Matthew, 1599–1600
The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, 1599–1600

Room III · The Great Commissions 1600–1604

The most sought-after painter in Rome: chapels in Santa Maria del Popolo and San Luigi dei Francesi, and canvases for the collections of the Mattei, the Giustiniani and the Barberini.

The Conversion of Saul, 1600–1601
The Crucifixion of Saint Peter, 1601
The Conversion on the Way to Damascus, 1601
Supper at Emmaus, 1601
Amor Vincit Omnia, 1601–1602
The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, c. 1601–1602
The Inspiration of Saint Matthew, 1602
Saint John the Baptist with a Ram, 1602
The Taking of Christ, 1602
The Crowning with Thorns, c. 1603
The Sacrifice of Isaac, c. 1603
The Entombment of Christ, 1603–1604

Room IV · The Last Years in Rome 1604–1606

Great altarpieces, some rejected for their raw truthfulness, and ever more frequent brawls, until in May 1606 he kills Ranuccio Tomassoni and flees the city.

Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness, c. 1604
Saint John the Baptist (Galleria Corsini), c. 1604
The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew, c. 1604
Madonna of Loreto, 1604–1606
Saint Jerome in Meditation, c. 1605
Saint Jerome Writing, c. 1605–1606
Madonna and Child with Saint Anne, 1605–1606
Death of the Virgin, c. 1604–1606

Room V · Flight and Naples 1606–1607

Sentenced to death in Rome, Caravaggio hides on the Colonna estates and then reaches Naples, where he is welcomed as a celebrity and paints for churches and private patrons.

Supper at Emmaus (Brera), 1606
The Seven Works of Mercy, 1606–1607
Madonna of the Rosary, c. 1607
The Flagellation of Christ, 1607
Christ at the Column, c. 1606–1607
The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew, 1607
David with the Head of Goliath (Vienna), c. 1606–1607
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (London), c. 1607
Ecce Homo, c. 1605–1609

Room VI · Malta 1607–1608

On Malta he paints for the Knights of Saint John and is made a knight of the Order himself, until a brawl lands him in prison; he escapes, and is expelled from the Order.

Saint Jerome Writing (Malta), 1607–1608
Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and his Page, c. 1607–1608
Portrait of Fra Antonio Martelli, c. 1607–1608
Sleeping Cupid, 1608
The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, 1608

Room VII · Sicily and the Last Journey 1608–1610

Syracuse, Messina, Palermo, then Naples again, where he is attacked and disfigured. In July 1610 he dies at Porto Ercole, on his way back to Rome in the hope of a pardon.

The Annunciation, c. 1608
The Burial of Saint Lucy, 1608
The Raising of Lazarus, 1609
The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1609
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Madrid), c. 1609
Saint John the Baptist (Galleria Borghese), c. 1610
David with the Head of Goliath (Galleria Borghese), c. 1609–1610
The Denial of Saint Peter, 1610
The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, 1610