Caravaggio Tour Rome

This new specialist art tour is for those who express a keen interest in the life and works of Caravaggio. Six years of infamy and excess in Rome, but was the extreme light used in his finest accomplishments a fair reflection of his oft-documented extreme lifestyle? This is a private guided tour of Baroque Rome.

 Prices

To confirm your 'Caravaggio Rome Tour' booking, click Check Availability below and pay a 50 Euro deposit per person. Balance payment information will be sent with your confirmation e-mail.

1 person: 340 Euro; 2 persons: 425 Euro; 3 persons: 505 Euro; 4 persons: 595 Euro; 5 persons: 690 Euro; 6 persons: 765 Euro; 7 persons: 830 Euro; 8 persons: 895 Euro; 9 persons: 1,020 Euro; 10 persons: 1,090 Euro; 11 persons: 1,175 Euro; 12 persons: 1,260 Euro; 13 persons: 1,360 Euro; 14 persons: 1,445 Euro; 15 persons: 1,530 Euro; 16-50 persons: + 90 Euro per person.

 Tour Duration / Availability

Approximately four (4) hours on Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri, Sat excluding religious holidays.

 Caravaggio Rome Tours / Meeting Point

09:00 AM at hotel or on site meeting point (Piazza Navona).

 Overview

From stock painter for Roman Mannerist Guiseppe Cesari at the turn of the 17th century, to his first commission in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi between Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona (serialization of the life of St. Matthew adorning the Contarelli chapel), we cover the life, works and escapades of Caravaggio when in Rome, and gradually come to understand his considerable influence as a Baroque artist and the concept of Tenebrism.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was tutored by Simone Peterzano in Milan, who himself was one of Titian's protégés in Venice. His style of portraying common people in every day situations with 'dramatic chiarascuro', where a shaft of divine light illuminates the main subject from an unclear origin, leaving the rest of the scene in obscurity, sets his work apart from his peers.

Between 1596-1604, Caravaggio was perhaps the most famous painter in the city. Prolific, too, in light of the fact that he was handed many commissions. Praised by Cardinal and benefactor Francesco Maria Del Monte, whose residence was Palazzo Madama (the seat of the Italian Senate today), Caravaggio's life in Counter-Reformation Rome was centred around Piazza San Luigi dei Francesi until he moved into the palace to work. His newest creations were often inaugurated in churches, some of which have not been moved since their unveiling on hallowed ground over 400 years ago. The way in which Caravaggio portrayed gamblers, peasants, prostitutes, and the darker side of street life - in which he had his own fateful part to play - provoked outrage, so much so that he was forgotten in death until the turn of the 19th century. It is believed that Caravaggio prowled the streets around Piazza Navona dressed head to toe in black with a black dog by his side. Despite his reputation as a hell-raising rabble rouser, Del Monte's contacts and influence thrust Caravaggio into the spotlight. The powerful Cardinal Scipione Borghese, patron to Bernini, became an avid collector of his work.

We visit the museum churches of Rome in search of Caravaggio's finest paintings, the places where he lived and worked, where he drank, and where it is believed he killed. We visit the Borghese Gallery to study 'Boy with Basket of Fruit' (1594), 'Young Sick Bacchus' (1593), 'Madonna and Child with St Anne (Dei Palafrenieri)' (1606) and 'David with the Head of Goliath' (1610). We visit the Pinacoteca in the Capitoline Museums to see his 'St. John the Baptist' (1602), Palazzo Barberini to see 'Judith beheading Holofernes' (1598), the Vatican Museums to see 'The Deposition' ('Entombment of Christ', 1602), and Doria Pamphili Gallery to see 'Penitent Magdalene' (1594) and 'Rest on the Flight into Egypt' (1597). He was a great influence on Peter Paul Rubens, who was in Rome at the same time, and Rembrandt, who practiced a particularly theatrical form of 'chiaroscuro'.

'In painting not equal to a painter, but to Nature itself'. (Marzio Milesi, August 15th, 1610)

 The When In Rome Tours Promise

** WE TAKE CARE OF YOUR MUSEUM AND GALLERY TICKETS WITH PRIORITY NO LINES ENTRANCE
** Our prices include Vatican Museums, Borghese Gallery, Doria Pamphili Gallery and Capitoline Museum tickets.

No hidden costs.
English speaking guides.
Personalized assistance.
Original articles & top stories from Italy.
Free Rome orientation & maps at our office.

Cost does not include taxi transfers. As a significant amount of walking is required, in the event of physical disabilities, we ask that you contact us before booking so that we can assess whether or not a wheelchair is needed. Later start times available on request.