In this highly original study Troy Thomas examines Caravaggio’s life and art in relation to his most profound achievement: the creation of modernity. He focuses on the inherent tensions, contradictions and ambiguities in Caravaggio’s art - key areas often ignored by other experts. Structured thematically and chronologically, the book begins with an in-depth look at the artist’s early life and works, which establish and refine his realism, his dark settings and his subtle and clever ambiguity of genre and meaning. It describes his mature religious works that eschew the theatrical stock poses and expressions of previous art.