Caravaggio: BACCO at the Uffizi

Hotel Mario's staff helps to visit Florence and its jewels!!!
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610) was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque school of painting.
Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan under a master who had himself trained under Titian. In his early twenties Caravaggio moved to Rome where, during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, many huge new churches and palazzi were being built and paintings were needed to fill them. During the Counter-Reformation the Roman Catholic Church searched for religious art with which to counter the threat of Protestantism, and for this task the artificial conventions of Mannerism, which had ruled art for almost a century, no longer seemed adequate. Caravaggio's novelty was a radical naturalism which combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, use of chiaroscuro that came to be known as Tenebrism, the shift from light to dark with little intermediate value. He burst upon the Rome art scene in 1600 with the success of his first public commissions, the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and Calling of Saint Matthew. Thereafter he never lacked for commissions or patrons, yet he handled his success atrociously. An early published notice on him, dating from 1604 and describing his lifestyle three years previously, tells how "after a fortnight's work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him." In 1606 he killed a young man in a brawl and fled from Rome with a price on his head. In Malta in 1608 he was involved in another brawl, and yet another in Naples in 1609, possibly a deliberate attempt on his life by unidentified enemies. By the next year, after a relatively brief career, he was dead.
Famous (and notorious) while he lived, Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, and it was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. Despite this, his influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from the ruins of Mannerism, was profound. It can be seen directly or indirectly in the work of Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Bernini, and Rembrandt, and artists in the following generation heavily under his influence were called the "Caravaggisti" or "Caravagesques", as well as Tenebrists or "Tenebrosi" ("shadowists"). Andre Berne-Joffroy, Paul Valéry's secretary, said of him: "What begins in the work of Caravaggio is, quite simply, modern painting."

HOTEL MARIO'S - FLORENCE

The ornate renaissance building which houses Mario’s Hotel dates back to the 17th century, when it was the aristocratic residence of a noble of the great Florentine Republic and was converted into a hotel in 1872. Today, Mario's is still run by a Florentine family who have been in the hospitality industry for generations. Leonardo and his brothers will make sure that the 3 Star Hotel Mario's continues to remain the value for money, charming Florentine Guest House for which it is famous. Now refurbished and improved, through continuous change Mario’s Guest House is a perfect blend of charm and splendour from the cradle of the renaissance with modern customer service and with only 16 rooms we’re able to give each and every guest personal service.
The entire property is air conditioned and central heated, with 21st century insulation and a range of mod cons like power showers, international satellite TV and a Hotel Bar with internet point where you can relax and catch up on those emails. Business clients are welcome to use our fax and photocopier and will be pleased to know we’re located right by the Fortezza da Basso Exhibition Centre.