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Probably the most revolutionary artist of his time, the Italian painter abandoned the rules that had guided a century of artists before him. Through the use of his revolutionary techniques of selective lighting, became a prominent painter in the Baroque period. ....

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.... to the Hospital of the Consolation, where he did some painting for the Prior. Having no money, he moved into a decaying neighborhood which suited his personality well. Caravaggio struggled to live in Rome for the first five years. According to biographers he was needy and stripped of every thing. Caravaggio never held a job for more than a couple of weeks during this time, but when he did, he usually was an assistant to painter of much less skill. Despite the poverty he worked under, during this time he created over forty works. These early pictures "reveal a fresh, direct, and empirical approach; they were apparently painted directly from life ....