Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (28 September 1571 – 18 July 1610)
Famous and extremely influential while he lived, Caravaggio was almost completely forgotten in the centuries after his death, and it was only in the last few decades of the 20th century that he was rediscovered. Yet despite this, his technique (unique at the time) of painting only from life, without drawings, and his use of hightened chiaroscuro (tenebrism) had a profound influence on the common style which eventually emerged from the ruins of Mannerism, the new Baroque. In the following generation the affects of Caravaggio, although attenuated, are to be seen in the work of Rubens, Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Velazquez.
Although no conclusive evidence of Caravaggio’s sexuality has survived, derogatory accusations made by contemporaries, coupled with the aggressive representation of male eroticism in his paintings, suggest that he was actively bisexual, if not primarily homosexual.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio
http://www.glbtq.com/arts/caravaggio.html
Nicolas Chinardet
