AllMovie

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was one of the most influential and gifted artists of the early 17th Century; his striking use of lighting and unusual choices of models brought a new level of naturalism to painting, but at the same time Caravaggio was a man of strong ideals, large appetites, and uncertain temperament, and his gifts with paint and canvas didn't always compensate for his run-ins with the law or his battles with his patrons. The Great Masters: Caravaggio is a documentary which looks at both the man and his work with careful examination of his canvases, a tour of the cities where he lived and painted, and analysis by art experts and biographers.