Caravaggio And His Legacy
They were known as the "Caravaggisti"--artists who imitated the 16th-century master's earthy, realistic style or subject matter. Caravaggio's impact on his contemporaries was immediate, but in the decades that followed his brief career, hundreds of artists drew inspiration from his innovative use of intense light and shadow, the distinctly theatrical atmosphere of his paintings, his use of religious imagery, and his preference for painting directly from life.