Caravaggio leaves Cesari in January 1594, determined…

Caravaggio leaves Cesari in January 1594, determined to make his own way.

His fortunes are at their lowest ebb, yet it is now that he forges some extremely important friendships, with the painter Prospero Orsi, the architect Onorio Longhi, and the sixteen year old Sicilian artist Mario Minniti.

Orsi, established in the profession, introduces him to influential collectors; Longhi, more balefully, introduces him to the world of Roman street-brawls; and Minniti serves as a model and, years later, will be instrumental in helping Caravaggio to important commissions in Sicily.

The Fortune Teller, his first composition with more than one figure, shows Mario being cheated by a gypsy girl.

The theme is quite new for Rome, and is to prove immensely influential over the next century and beyond.

This, however, is in the future: at the time, Caravaggio sells it for practically nothing.

The Cardsharps—showing another unsophisticated boy falling the victim of card cheats—is even more psychologically complex, and perhaps Caravaggio's first true masterpiece.

Like The Fortune Teller, it is immensely popular, and over fifty copies survive.

More importantly, it attracts the patronage of Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, one of the leading connoisseurs in Rome.