Edouard Manet Olympia. Venus of Urbino by Titian at Uffizi Gallery Florence. Caravaggio - The complete works. Caravaggio - Biography - Painter - Biography.com. Caravaggio, or Michelangelo Merisi, was an Italian painter who is considered one of the fathers of modern painting.
Synopsis Caravaggio was born as Michelangelo Merisi in Italy around 1571. He was orphaned at age 11 and apprenticed with a painter in Milan. He moved to Rome, where his work became popular for the tenebrism technique he used, which used shadow to emphasize lighter areas.