Caravaggio

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan before moving to Rome in his twenties, where he built a reputation through close physical observation and a dramatic use of light and shadow - tenebrism - that transfixed subjects in bright shafts against darkening voids. He worked rapidly with live models, painting directly onto canvas without drawings, often depicting violent struggle, torture, and death. His technique became a dominant stylistic element that shaped Baroque painting and influenced Rubens, Ribera, Bernini, Velázquez, and Rembrandt. In 1606 he killed Ranuccio Tommasoni in a brawl, earning a death sentence that forced him to flee to Naples, then Malta, then Sicily, pursuing a papal pardon while continuing to paint. He returned to Naples in 1609, where a violent clash disfigured his face and spread rumours of his death. He died in 1610 under uncertain circumstances - fever, murder, or lead poisoning - while traveling from Naples to Rome, leaving behind work that fell out of favour for centuries before the 20th century recognized him as the beginning of modern painting.