Utrecht
Caravaggio
and Europe

Hendrick ter Brugghen

1588–1629

Ter Brugghen was born the son of a senior civil servant in either The Hague or Utrecht. In Utrecht, he was a student of Abraham Bloemaert. The dates and stages of his journey to Italy are not documented; it is believed that he spent time in, among others, Rome, Naples and northern Italy. In the summer of 1614, he was verifiably in Milan, together with two fellow painters who were on their way home to the Netherlands. Ter Brugghen’s earliest extant painting was executed in Utrecht in 1616. That same year, he is already listed as a member of the Guild of St Luke and married Jacoba Verbeek. He lived in Utrecht until his death, with the exception of the years 1619 to 1621, during which he presumably made a second trip to Italy.

Gerard van Honthorst

1592–1656

The son of a painter, Honthorst was born in Utrecht and trained in the workshop of Abraham Bloemaert. The year of his arrival in Rome is uncertain; the earliest document of his stay there is a drawing, dated 1616, after a painting by Caravaggio. Until his departure in 1620, he lived in the household of Benedetto and Vincenzo Giustiniani. In Rome, Honthorst received commissions from important patrons for altar and gallery paintings. Of these, his artificially lit night scenes in particular gained him notoriety, so much so that he was later nicknamed ‘Gherardo delle Notti’. Back in Utrecht, he ran a large workshop with numerous students, including Joachim von Sandrart. From April to December 1628, he worked at the English court of King Charles I and was granted English citizenship in November of the same year. In the following years, his international reputation grew in aristocratic circles. In 1640, he was elected president of the Utrecht painters’ guild. Honthorst died in Utrecht in 1656.

Dirck van Baburen

um 1592/93–1624

Born in Wijk bij Duurstede near Utrecht in c. 1592/93, Baburen received his early artistic training from Paulus Moreelse in Utrecht. In 1611, he is listed for the last time as a member of the local painters’ guild. Shortly thereafter, he travelled to Italy, where a painting in Parma, signed by him in 1615 and mentioned in historic sources, is considered the earliest evidence of his stay in Italy. In Rome, he occasionally lived together with his fellow countryman David de Haen and Nicolas Régnier. The most important commissioned works are his paintings for Pietro Cussida in the Pietà Chapel in San Pietro in Montorio. Baburen returned to Utrecht around 1620/21 and died there in 1624. During the final years of his life, he increasingly painted secular motifs, such as, for example, musicians as half-length figures.

Michelangelo Merisi, gen. Caravaggio

1571–1610

Born the son of Fermo Merisi of Caravaggio in Milan, Michelangelo trained there from 1584 onwards as an apprentice to Simone Peterzano. The date of his arrival in Rome is not documented. In the mid-1590s, he was taken into the household of his patron, Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, in the Palazzo Madama. Through Del Monte, he met Vincenzo Giustiniani, another important patron. In 1599, Caravaggio received his first public commission, the painting of the altarpieces of the Contarelli Chapel; this was followed by the side paintings in the Cerasi Chapel. From 1602/03 on, he was commissioned to paint works for the most important Roman families, including the Matteis, the Barberinis and the Borgheses. In May 1606, Caravaggio killed Ranuccio Tomassoni in a dispute, whereupon he fled to Naples. From 1607 on, he stayed in Malta, but was forced to flee from the island the following year due to a conflict and, after a one-year sojourn in Sicily, returned to Naples. On his journey back to Rome, Caravaggio died in Porto Ercole on 18 July 1610.