Rebelling against convention in both his art and his bad behavior, Italian baroque virtuoso Caravaggio is lauded as the foremost naturalist painter of the early 17th century. Rejecting painting conventions, his religious works featured divine religious figures as ordinary people, which was quite scandalous at the time. His work also exhibits the influence of High Renaissance masters, especially Michelangelo. Caravaggio was also credited with bringing the dramatic effect of light and dark or “chiaroscuro” to prominence.