Darkness & Light

Caravaggio's style corresponded to his physiognomy and appearance; he had a dark complexion and dark eyes, and his eyebrows and hair were black; this colouring was naturally reflected in his paintings.
Collector, art theorist and biographer Giovanni Pietro Bellori 1672

Caravaggio's greatest legacy is that he was the first artist to use conventional people as models for characters portrayed in high art, particularly in religious painting. This brought him much criticism, but also won him high praise, and many commissions for religious paintings. The notion of using humble-looking figures, dressed and styled in contemporary fashions, made these religious works very accessible to his audience. The Council of Trent, whose dictums shaped the counter-reformation, demanded from artists that religious paintings were very clear in their message. Caravaggio's naturalism perfectly suited this aim, and was a strong factor in his style being taken up by so many artists.

 

Never before had an artist presented religious drama as contemporary life...nor had any earlier painter dared to break so dramatically with long established studio traditions, painting his figures from nature, directly onto the canvas, with complex effects of studio lighting.
Helen Langdon, Caravaggio: a life , 1998.

Caravaggio's realism makes his religious art immediately accessible, and his pious characters are unambiguous exemplars for the devout. In his paintings of individual saints, Caravaggio used a dark background to isolate the figures, which focuses the viewer's attention entirely on the expressive emotional qualities of the saint. He directed strong light on the figure, which adds to the drama as the divine light reinforces the epiphany experienced by the saint.