Bartolomeo Cavarozzi

Bartolomeo Cavarozzi ranks among the most significant followers of Caravaggio. Born in Viterbo in 1587, Cavarozzi arrived in Rome around 1600 where his first teacher was the Viterbese painter Tarquinio Ligustri. Through Ligustri he became acquainted with the aristocratic Crescenzi family, who were to become a significant force in shaping the young artist's career. Cavarozzi eventually entered into their household and lived at their palazzo near the Pantheon. Cavarozzi also studied at the academy of art established by the Marquis Giovanni Battista Crescenzi - who was the city's Surveyor of Monuments - and adopted the name Bartolomeo del Crescenzi. He also travelled with Crescenzi to Madrid between 1617 and 1618, where Cavarozzi was highly productive, producing works for churches.

In the Crescenzi household Cavarozzi encountered the late Mannerist painter Cristoforo Roncalli, whose influence can felt in Cavarozzi's earliest known work, dated 1608, a Saint Ursula and her Companions, today in the church of San Marco in Rome.  However, the most significant influence for Cavarozzi was Caravaggio. Although the artist adopted Caravaggio’s tenebrism and naturalism, he avoided the active drama which characterises the works of many of the Caravaggisti, instead populating his canvases with figures marked by their supremely graceful poses, restrained gestures, and pensive attitudes. Cavarozzi also excelled in the genre of still life, perhaps owing to his period in the Crescenzi academy where, as noted by Giovanni Baglione, artists were trained to copy 'fruits, animals and other bizarre things.'