This Renaissance Master Was Probably a Serial Killer

It's hard to say who the artistic muses will strike with inspiration and for what reason. While many great artists lived humble, quiet lives, just as many endured lives of utter chaos, trauma, and tragedy. Some of the most celebrated artists in history managed to pump out great paintings while simultaneously living recklessly and violently.

Indeed, as evidenced by the figures included in this list, some world-famous artists lived more like gangsters than craftsmen. While painters like Vincent Van Gogh and Richard Dadd suffered terrible bouts of mental illness that induced violent behavior, others like Caravaggio seemed to make a sport of random violence. Considering the number of murders under his belt, Cellini was likely a serial killer. This article will investigate the shocking and turbulent lives of some of the most famous artists in history.

To compile a list of artists with turbulent personal lives, 24/7 Tempo consulted a range of art, historical, and news publications. These include Art Aesthetics Magazine, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. From there, we selected famous artists who had incredibly violent or turbulent personal lives either due to mental illness or a life of crime. After that, we confirmed aspects of our research using sites like Britannica and Biography.com.

It seemed fate had something specific in store for Carlo Crivelli. Born into a family of painters, Crivelli underwent an intense and prolonged series of artistic apprenticeships. He first worked under artist Jacobello del Fiore before working in the shop of equally famous artist Francesco Squarcione. After that, Crivelli was accomplished enough to start his own artist's studio.

During the early years of his shop management, however, Crivelli got in trouble with the law. In 1457, authorities sentenced him to six months in prison for having an affair with a married woman. Crivelli moved to Zadar in modern-day Croatia after being released. The scandal seemed to have little effect, as Crivelli eventually returned to Italy and developed a reputation as a Renaissance master thanks to his striking and detailed triptychs. As his career progressed, Crivelli's work became increasingly detailed. Thanks to the accuracy of his portraits, many contemporaries admired his work while simultaneously considering it disturbing. By the time of his death in 1495, his work fell out of favor. European exhibits of his paintings in the 20th century, however, helped revive Crivelli's reputation as a master painter.

When Edgar Degas started his painting career, he wanted to pursue history as his subject. Pursuing this theme transformed him into a master draftsman, allowing him to portray real-life scenes with unparalleled accuracy. By his early 30s, however, Degas got caught up in the burgeoning Impressionist movement and turned his gaze toward kinetic themes like dancers. Though he stood as the most grounded Impressionist painter, he took the world by storm with his poetic and haunting visual interpretations of dance.

What most people don't know about Degas, however, is his vicious antisemitism. Who knows how long he harbored such feelings, but when the Dreyfuss Affair scandalized the French Press it seemed to bring his hatred to the surface. The Affair involved a French military officer of Jewish descent falsely accused of treason. The scandal brought out the worst in Degas, who broke contact with all of his Jewish friends and at one point, even chased a Jewish model out of his studio when she brought up the Dreyfuss Affair. Long before his outward displays of antisemitism, Degas was known by those he let in his inner circle to be unpleasant, rude, and a curmudgeon.

Perhaps more than any artist, Vincent Van Gogh embodied the tortured artist archetype. Even as a boy, he connected deeply with art and religion. He worked at his uncle's art dealership to get his foot in the door before transferring to another dealership in London. There, he quickly fell in love with the landlord's daughter. He proposed but she declined, prompting his first psychotic break at the age of 20. The bout of madness turned Van Gogh's attention toward God, and he attempted to become a priest but was rejected due to his dysfunctional lifestyle. So began a life burdened by mental instability.

Off and on, Van Gogh suffered from hallucinations and delusions. His interpersonal relationships didn't fare much better either. At one point, he befriended another artist on this list, Paul Gaugin. They quickly had a falling out, however, and Van Gogh sliced off his ear in response. Such moments forced him to spend time at various mental hospitals and asylums including the Saint-Paul Asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Eventually, he discharged himself from the hospital and came under the care of a homeopathic doctor. His depression only got worse, however. Not long after, Van Gogh likely committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest with a revolver. In a bit of dark irony, appreciation for his artwork only started to grow during the last year of his life.

These days, Egon Schiele is known and even celebrated for his visceral, emaciated portraits of people. Back in his day, however, Schiele was constantly run out of town for what authorities perceived as improper relationships with young people. He caught the artist bug early, obsessively drawing trains until his father threw out his sketchbooks. Around that time, Schiele's father also caught him as he attempted to seduce his younger sister. Though evidence remains scant on their relations, at one point, Schiele secretly took his sister to a different city and spent a night in a hotel room with her.

By the time he matured as an artist, patrons were delighted and disturbed by Schiele's graphic, unconventional portraits of children and sickly adults. In 1911, Schiele met Walburga "Wally" Neuzil who became his muse and model for some of his most striking paintings. The pair moved to Český Krumlov in Southern Bohemia but were quickly driven out by residents for their unconventional lifestyle as well as allegations that Schiele was using local teenage girls as models.

This scandal saw the couple move to Neulengbach near Vienna, Austria. Things didn't fare much better for Schiele there either. In April 1912, police arrested Schiele for seducing a 13-year-old girl and seized hundreds of drawings considered to be pornographic. Though a judge later threw out the seduction charge, he upheld the charges of obscenity and burned one of the drawings in the courtroom. When World War I broke out, Schiele avoided conscription for a few years before serving as a POW camp guard and clerk. Shortly after the war, Schiele died from the Spanish Flu at age 28.

Like all great artists of the time, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio received formal painting training from an early age. He quickly gained a reputation as a talented artist, which helped him score gigs across Italy in places like Milan and Rome. Simultaneously, Caravaggio gained another, more provocative reputation. He was touchy and prone to violent outbursts and retribution. He seemed to make enemies wherever he went, engaging in near-constant drunken brawls and often did stints in jail. All the while, however, Caravaggio's status in the art world grew. His innovative use of darkened tones revitalized a plateaued Italian art world.

He was said to work obsessively for a few weeks, get paid, and then spend another few weeks wandering around town with a sword taunting people into fights. By 1606, Caravaggio's constant outbursts and drunken attacks on others finally caught up with him. Due to a purported love triangle between Caravaggio, his model Fillide Melandroni, and her consort Ranuccio Tomassoni, Caravaggio killed Tomassoni in a drunken duel. Previously, Caravaggio's wealthy patrons had shielded him from serious trouble. The murder was a bridge too far, however, and after a court sentenced him to beheading, he was forced to flee to Rome.

On the run, Caravaggio painted some of his most famous works, increasingly incorporating severed heads as a nod to his predicament. From there, Caravaggio evaded the law by constantly moving between places like Sicily, Milan, and Naples. Not long after, Caravaggio died in Tuscany. Though some say he died due to syphilis, others suggest he was murdered by one of his many enemies. No artist in history lived as chaotically and criminally as Renaissance master Caravaggio.

Though his parents pushed him toward a career in music, Benvenuto Cellini aimed for visual artistic greatness. While living in Bologna, Cellini learned goldsmithing. After plying the trade for a while, he moved to Rome where he courted favor with Pope Clement VII thanks to his beautiful silversmith work. When troops under the leadership of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V attacked Rome, Cellini fought on the side of the Italians, reportedly killing Philibert of Chalon, the last prince of Orange. When the fighting ended, Cellini resumed his world as a sculptor and metalsmith and his reputation grew.

While living in Rome, his brother Cecchino killed a corporal of the Roman Watch. Another soldier returned fire, hitting Cecchino who later died from his wounds. Cellini sought vengeance and killed the soldier. Presuming imprisonment, he fled to Naples where he acquired a pardon thanks to several influential cardinals. A few years later, Cellini murdered rival goldsmith the Pompeo of Milan. Around this time, he also killed an innkeeper.

After that, Cellini worked productively for periods before facing the law for various accusations of embezzlement, assault, and a host of other charges too explicit to mention here. Thanks to his standing as one of the greatest goldsmiths in history, Cellini managed to avoid execution, much less prolonged periods of imprisonment. Considering the multiple murders under his belt, Cellini can be classified as a serial killer.

Paul Gaugin grew up in a wealthy family and upon hitting maturity, pursued a career as a stockbroker. In his spare time, he took up painting and began to exhibit his work at galleries around Paris. When the financial crisis of 1882 hit France, Gaugin's stockbroker prospects dried up overnight.

In response, he pursued a full-time career as a painter. Largely self-taught, Gaugin became an acolyte of other famous artists which informed his increasingly unique and vibrant painting style. In the 1890s, he seemed to undergo something of a mid-life crisis. Despite being married with five children, Gaugin abandoned his family and moved to the then-French colony of Tahiti.

In Tahiti, Gaugin painted some of his most celebrated works. He also fell into constant controversy for his improper relations with young girls. While living on the island, Gaugin married three adolescent girls, several of which he fathered children with. Later, Gaugin abandoned his new families and returned to France. Though he eventually returned to Tahiti, he refused to visit his children and died of complications from syphilis.

Some artists like Richard Dadd undergo a shocking and traumatic event that shapes the rest of their lives. Born in Kent, England, Dadd showed an early aptitude for drawing. As such, he was admitted to the Royal Academy Art Schools where he earned medals for his life drawing abilities. After that, Dadd embarked on something of a world tour, rendering scenes from places like Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. Something shifted inside of Dadd, however, and he began suffering from severe delusions that he was under the influence of the god Osiris while traveling up the Nile River in Egypt.

Upon returning home to England, Dadd was diagnosed with an unsound mind and went to his parent's house in Kent to recuperate. He soon became convinced his father was masquerading as the devil and killed him with a knife before fleeing to France. Along the way, Dadd attacked a fellow passenger on the ferry but was overpowered and arrested by the police. He spent the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals and prisons including the notorious Broadmoor Hospital. Likely suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, Dadd nevertheless kept painting with a prolific output. After shifting his interest to fairies, Dadd painted some of his most famous works while under psychiatric care. Though he died in 1886, many of his works still sit on display at various British museums.

Michelangelo was a famous artist during his lifetime and in the modern day. Thanks to his larger-than-life sculptures and incredibly detailed rendering of biblical scenes, many consider him the greatest artist in history. That reputation came at a price, however, as Michelangelo likely suffered from Asperger's Syndrome. Aloof and a loner, he had trouble maintaining relationships with other people. It is said he would often walk away from people mid-conversation. Furthermore, he had a short temper and prolonged moments of paranoia. He even skipped his brother's funeral to keep working on his paintings.

Indeed, his commitment to the craft was obsessive. He could create hundreds of technically masterful drawings in short periods, eschewing all sense of sociability and self-care in the process. According to his assistants, Michelangelo rarely bathed, preferring to sleep in his clothes and boots. His assistant once wrote, "He has sometimes gone so long without taking them off that then the skin came away, like a snake's, with the boots." Nevertheless, Michelangelo's single-minded commitment to art resulted in a reputation that will remain for centuries.

No matter how you slice it, Pablo Picasso is considered the greatest artist of the 20th century. His various thematic periods produced innovative works that changed the art world for good. All the while, however, Picasso was a vicious misogynist and abuser. Of his many relationships, both marriages and with mistresses, Picasso was emotionally abusive to his lovers, constantly berating them and controlling their actions.

Throughout his life, Picasso went through new lovers constantly. In short order, he would abandon them for new prospects. To make matters worse, Picasso sired several illegitimate children along the way, ones that he refused to acknowledge even on his deathbed. The contrast between Picasso's artistic output and turbulent personal life raises difficult questions about the acceptance of great art from horrible people. Even the most neutral art historian has trouble reconciling Picasso the artist with Picasso the man.