Caravaggio’s Roman Period

Caravaggio’s Roman Period, within Paris’s Musée Jacquemart-André, focuses on 1592–1606, when Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio transformed Roman painting with radical naturalism and theatrical chiaroscuro. In works such as Judith Beheading Holofernes, saints and sinners share the same harsh light, making biblical violence, repentance, and doubt feel immediate and human. Seen in a mansion museum built for intimate viewing, this section shows why Caravaggio’s Roman breakthrough became a template for the Baroque and a touchstone for artists across Europe.