Death of The Virgin (Caravaggio) - History

History

When he painted The Death of the Virgin (c. 1601-6), Caravaggio had been working in Rome for fifteen years. The painting was commissioned by Laerzio Alberti, a papal lawyer, for his chapel in the Carmelite church of Santa Maria della Scala in Trastevere, Rome, the painting could not have been finished before 1605-1606. The depiction of the Death of the Virgin caused a contemporary stir, and was rejected as unfit by the parish. Contemporaries accused Caravaggio of modelling a mistress/prostitute as the Virgin.

It was acquired by the Gonzaga family in Mantua and subsequently, upon the recommendation by Peter Paul Rubens, who praised it as one of Caravaggio's best works, the painting was bought by Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, whose collection was later to be sold to Charles I of England. After his execution the English Commonwealth put his collection up for sale, and the painting was bought for the French Royal Collection, which after the French Revolution became the property of the state. Today it hangs in the Louvre. Prior to leaving Rome, it was exposed at the Academy of Painters for under two weeks, however, by then, Caravaggio had fled Rome, never to publicly return. During one of his frequent brawls in Rome, the mercurial and impulsive Caravaggio killed a man, Ranuccio Tomassoni, during a sword fight after a tennis game.