We may assume that, after leaving the Lombard capital, Caravaggio was in Venice around 1585. Although we cannot know for certain when he arrived in the city, there is no doubt that the death of his mother around that time would have strengthened his resolve to leave Milan. The artistic influence that Milan had on him was later assessed as central to his subsequent artistic development.[19] According to Baglione, Federigo Zucchero made a comment about Caravaggio’s work to which we owe the certain indication that in reality it was Giorgio Barbarelli, known as Giorgione, under whose spell the young artist fell. “I cannot look at them without seeing the influence of Giorgione,” the well-known mannerist of the Roman School commented on Caravaggio’s paintings in San Luigi dei Francesi,[20] a judgement that did not really fit the works criticised, as they had already overcome the Venetian influence and displayed Caravaggio’s own characteristic style. In Roman artists’ circles at that time it was believed that Caravaggio had close links to Venice. From this period the young and susceptible artist indulged in the magic of Venetian painting, which was then at its peak. The painters of the time most admired by Caravaggio were attempting to characterise their subjects better by creating works of large dimensions on a restrained background. One thinks particularly of Giorgione’s portraits of men in Berlin and Brunswick,[21] and of the portrait of a young man by Torbido at the Pinakothek in Munich.[22] Caravaggio’s own canvases reached almost gigantic proportions, beyond the works of Torbido and Giorgione. The idea of pure contemplation of the subject, which the Venetian artists preferred, was in this way surpassed by Caravaggio.

      According to Eisenmann, there is a painting of the biblical Judith from Caravaggio’s Venetian period, formerly in the La Motta Collection in the Treviso region, which is now said to be in English private possession. Waagen, who otherwise conveys a precise knowledge of these collections, does not mention the painting. There is one work depicting Judith and Holofernes, painted around 1597–1598, that can be found today in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome. According to Baglione, Caravaggio may have painted another of the same subject for the Signori Costi in Rome. It is difficult to judge whether he is referring to the same work, but there is nevertheless another depiction of Judith, painted several years later in 1607, that is currently in Naples. It seems likely that Baglione was referring to a copy.

      Departure for Rome

      Some years later, aged twenty-one, Caravaggio went to Rome where, undoubtedly helped by his uncle who already lived in the city, he lodged with a landlord who lived a modest life, Fr Pandolfo Pucci de Recanati, an acquaintance of Monsignor Pucci, beneficiary of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. A document left by the historian W. Kallab indicates that the artist lived in comfortable conditions, but complained about certain aspects of domestic life, in particular about the meals which consisted of salad and chicory as starter, main dish and dessert. This is partly why after some months he left the home of Pandolfo Pucci, to whom he gave the nickname “Monsignor Insalata”. This same document indicates that the host commissioned from the young painter several works with religious subjects which were intended for his home town. It was at this time that Caravaggio fell ill and, having no money, he was admitted to the hospital of Santa Maria della Consolazione where during his convalescence he painted numerous canvases for the Prior.

      Caravaggio’s experiences in Venice were still strongly influencing him whilst in Rome, and he continued to concentrate on acquiring his own majestic style. That was the aim behind, and the result of, his apprenticeship in the studio of the Cavalier d’Arpino. In 1593 Caravaggio entered the studio of the successful painter Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino, also known as the Cavalier d’Arpino. Baglione tells us that “he stayed with the Cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino