Caravaggio Tour Rome

Tour Details

About the Tour

Category: Art and Museums
Duration: 3 hours
Location: Rome

Photos & Highlights

Discuss fundamental art concepts that define Caravaggio's place in history
Led by an art historian
San Luigi dei Francesi, Sant' Agostino, and Santa Maria del Popolo

Tour Description

Early Baroque painter, Michelangelo Merisi (1573-1610), better known as Caravaggio, left an indelible mark on the world of art—especially in Rome, which fortunately contains a large selection of his works. Many know him only as a controversial artist who fled the city after committing murder, but his art stands alone in its quality and originality. For some, Caravaggio and his influence define Baroque Italian art. This three-hour Caravaggio Tour of Rome, led by an art historian, explores the nature of Caravaggio's art in the context of its time, in order to fully understand his innovation and the controversy surrounding him.

This tour focuses specifically on Caravaggio's work that lies in-situ, that is, in the places for which the art was originally created. In this case, our walk takes us to three significant churches in the historic center: Santa Maria del Popolo, San Luigi dei Francesi, and Sant'Agostino. Along the way, we'll pass through the same city streets—largely unchanged—that Caravaggio inhabited in the 1600s, a lively and sometimes dangerous landscape from which he drew inspiration and (controversially) models for his work.

Santa Maria del Popolo

We'll start at Santa Maria del Popolo, where two of Caravaggio's works are juxtaposed in the same chapel with that of his stylistic rival Annibale Carracci. This gives us a chance to consider the wider artistic context of the Baroque period in which the artist was working, and also to consider the major themes that he grappled with. As we pass through Piazza del Popolo and into the Tridente neighborhood where Caravaggio lived and worked, we'll talk a bit about his method, recent scholarship, and the controversies that surrounded him—including the accusation of murder—during his career.

Want to see more Caravaggio? Try our Borghese Gallery Tour.

San Luigi dei Francesi

Our adventure includes a visit to San Luigi dei Francesi, the church of the French congregation in Rome and home to Caravaggio's stunning series on Saint Matthew, his first public altarpiece. Here we'll discuss some of the fundamental art concepts that underpin Caravaggio's place in history, including his revolutionary use of chiaroscuro, the strong interplay of light and dark so characteristic and powerful in his work. We'll also quickly see Sant'Agostino, home to a rarely-visited late work, and a perfect bookend to our time together.

To see more of the Baroque in Context, try our Baroque Rome Tour.

Where You'll Start

Tour Experts

Theresa

Theresa is an art historian and author of "Creating and Contemplating the Renaissance Garden". She holds a Master's degree in Art History and is intensely interested in the layers of Rome and unfolding the city's depth through seminar teaching and freelance writing. She is a contributing writer on Italian travel for The New York Post and The Buffalo News and has been involved as editor and consultant for several Italian and English language travel and academic book publications.

Pier Paolo

Pier Paolo has a doctorate (Ph.D) in Art History from the University of Roma TRE. He also earned a higher degree in the History of Medieval and Modern Art at the Sapienza University of Rome. Winner of the Accademia di San Luca scholarship in 1997, he conducted research in the United States on Academies and Collections in early Nineteenth Century America. Since 1998 he has collaborated with the ONG Museum With No Frontiers (editor of the Italian edition of the catalogues Islamic Art in the Mediterranean, and of the Italian section of the website Discover Islamic Art and Discover Baroque Art). Since 2003 he has taught art history at IES Study Abroad Program (Rome). He has published several articles in specialized art history journals, exhibition catalogues and in the Treccani Encyclopedia. His fields of specialization are museology, eighteenth century art and politics and history of art criticism.

Alessandra

Alessandra is a native Roman and art historian with a Master's degree in art history from the Sapienza University of Rome. Her specialization is Modern and Contemporary art and she has a deep-rooted love for the city where she lives with her two children. Alessandra is fluent in Italian, English, and French, and has a great interest in Mannerism, Baroque art, coloured antique marbles and decorative arts. Due to her broad knowledge of the history of Rome she leads a wide-variety of antiquity-themed itineraries. Since 2001 she has been a consultant at the Galleria Colonna in Rome.

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143 Reviews – (4.82)

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Frank was extremely informative. His incredible wealth of knowledge and perspective was fascinating. We loved his spontinaety in showing us Rome's hidden wonders.

Christine

Nov. 25, 2019

Frank really brought Caravaggio to life. The tour was also very well organised, very useful to have photos of meeting places etc.

Sarah

Oct. 29, 2019

There’s no such thing as a bad context tour. I take advantage of them whenever I’m in one of your cities. Alessandra was great. She shares a passion for Caravaggio. That came through in the tour. One thing I’d like to ask she showed us where Caravaggio probably killed the man and I forget the name of the street. If you could get that name to me it would be wonderful. Thanks

Chris

Oct. 17, 2019

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