The works of his second period were mostly larger religious compositions, the result of the reputation already established by his genre pro ductions. They aroused great opposition, espe ciall• in Rome, on account of the ordinary types which he used to portray the saints whom the I'hurch adored. Among those which had to be removed franc the churches in Rome was Matthew Writino the Gospel." now in the Ber lin Museum, and the admirable "Death of Mary." in the In the latter picture the body of the Virgin looks as if it had just come from the morgue, hut the expression of grief in the mourn ers is most affecting. His masterpiece of this category is his "Burial of Christ," painted for the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, hut now in the Vatican. This work is excellent in composition. the women are noble in expression, and the men are full of character. The body of hrist. though entirely realistic, is a beautiful representation of the nude. Rubens thought this picture worthy to copy and it has been often engraved.
The chief galleries of Europe abound in works of Caravaggio, but not nearly all of those aseribed to him are original. By its acquisition of the Giustiniani collection, Berlin is excep tionally rich, and London has a characteristic ex ample in "Christ and the Apostles at Em maus." Caravaggio also painted a few portraits,
of great realism and force. Of his "Portraits of Himself," the youthful specimen in the Uffizi (Florence) is noted, but his finest piece of por traiture is probably the "Grand Mastet of the knights of Malta," in the Louvre.
Although he had no direct pupils. Caravaggio was of the greatest influence upon the develop ment of modern art. Even the principal pupils of the Carracci. like Guido Beni and Guereino (q.v.). studied his art, and Domenichino (q.v.) was influenced by it. He may be justly consid ered the founder of the Naturalistic School (see PAl NTINC, ) and as the advocate of the return to nature. his influence extended beyond Italy into Germany. Frame, and the Netherlands.
Consult: Baglione, Le Vile Pittori (Rome, 1649 ) Bertolotti, rtisti Lombardi a Roma I Milan, 1881) : Eisemnann, "Caravaggio," in Dohme's Kunst and Kiinstler (Leipzig, 1879) and the article "('aravaggio," in Julius Meyer, Allgemeines Kiinstlerlexikon (Leipzig, 1SS5).