Painting from Life

Caravaggio's method depended on working straight from live models rather than the polished drawings other painters relied on. He posed street people in his studio and painted them exactly as they were — dirty fingernails, sunburned skin, and unwashed feet included.

That realism unsettled collectors used to idealized saints. His figures looked like the people you passed in the market, not the serene, flawless beings of traditional altarpieces — and many buyers found sacred scenes peopled by ordinary Romans hard to accept.