Whom did he use as models?

Ordinary people from the streets

Caravaggio Quiz: Chiaroscuro, Rome and Dramatic Light

Beams of light slicing through darkness made Caravaggio's paintings feel like stage scenes, and this Caravaggio quiz follows his brilliant and violent life. Play an interactive set of 10 questions on tenebrism, The Calling of Saint Matthew, the Contarelli Chapel, Judith Beheading Holofernes, the 1606 killing, his flight to Naples, Malta and Sicily, his only signed painting and his followers.

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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Name
What was Caravaggio's real name?
Style
What is the dramatic dark style he pioneered called?
Models
Whom did he use as models?
Matthew
Where does The Calling of Saint Matthew hang?
Judith
Which biblical heroine did he paint beheading a general?
Crime
Why did Caravaggio flee Rome in 1606?
Malta
Which order did he briefly join in Malta?
Signed
What is his only signed painting?
Death
In which year did Caravaggio die?
Followers
What are painters influenced by him called?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: What was Caravaggio's real name?
Answer: Michelangelo Merisi
Caravaggio was his family's hometown.
Q2: What is the dramatic dark style he pioneered called?
Answer: Tenebrism
It is an extreme form of chiaroscuro.
Q3: Whom did he use as models?
Answer: Ordinary people from the streets
Critics found this shocking.
Q4: Where does The Calling of Saint Matthew hang?
Answer: San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome
It is in the Contarelli Chapel.
Q5: Which biblical heroine did he paint beheading a general?
Answer: Judith
It is in Rome's Palazzo Barberini.
Q6: Why did Caravaggio flee Rome in 1606?
Answer: He killed a man in a fight
A death sentence hung over him.
Q7: Which order did he briefly join in Malta?
Answer: The Knights of Malta
He was later expelled.
Q8: What is his only signed painting?
Answer: The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
He signed in the saint's blood.
Q9: In which year did Caravaggio die?
Answer: 1610
He was only 38.
Q10: What are painters influenced by him called?
Answer: Caravaggisti
Artemisia Gentileschi was one.

Caravaggio Quiz – Chiaroscuro, Rome and Dramatic Light

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, born in 1571, transformed painting with tenebrism, a dramatic use of light and deep shadow. He painted religious scenes with ordinary people from Rome's streets as models, which shocked some patrons.

His breakthrough came with The Calling of Saint Matthew in the Contarelli Chapel of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. Other works include Judith Beheading Holofernes and The Supper at Emmaus.

In 1606 he killed a man in a fight and fled to Naples, Malta and Sicily. In Malta he painted The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, his only signed work. He died in 1610, and his followers, the Caravaggisti, spread his style across Europe.

What This Quiz Teaches

Art lovers will enjoy these questions.

Who Caravaggio was
How his style worked
Which paintings are famous
Why he fled Rome
How he influenced others

Did You Know?

Some churches rejected his paintings as indecent.
His Nativity was stolen from Palermo in 1969.
He painted directly without preliminary drawings.
His Medusa is painted on a shield.
Rembrandt was influenced indirectly by his style.