One of the best examples of an artist of real merit who surely qualifies as a "bad" human being is Carlo Gesualdo. He is likely known only to those well-versed in classical music. He arguably ranks second only to Monteverdi among Renaissance composers... and some of his later work bends the rules of music of the time beyond anyone else.
Gesualdo was Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza. In 1586 he married his first cousin, Donna Maria d'Avalos, the daughter of Carlo d'Avalos, prince of Montesarchio and Sveva Gesualdo, princess of Venosa. It has been suggested that Gesualdo failed to live up to his husbandly duties and was obsessed with his musical efforts. Some years into her marriage with Gesualdo, Donna Maria began an affair with Fabrizio Carafa, third Duke of Andria and seventh Count of Ruovo. On the night of October 16, 1590, at the Palazzo San Severo in Naples, the two lovers were caught
in flagrante by Gesualdo who had suspected her infidelities and doubled back to his estate after informing his wife that he would be gone a few days on business. Carafa was held by Gesualdo's servents while Gesualdo repeatedly stabbed his wife and finally shot her in the head while screaming, "Is she dead yet?!" At gunpoint Carafa was made to dress in his lover's clothing and then also shot to death. Gesualdo then had the bodies dumped on the steps of her parents' palazzo. As both Gesualdo and Donna Maria's parents were of the aristocracy, he was pardoned in spite of a delegation's interview of multiple witnesses and a report that did not skimp on the gruesome details.
Justice... or rather revenge between wealthy and aristocratic families was commonly dealt with personally between those involved through the vendetta. Following the murder, Gesualdo laid low for a year or so until the death of his father when he became the third Prince of Venosa and eighth Count of Conza. He married again, to Leonora d'Este, the niece of the powerful d'Este Duke Alfonso II and moved to
the home of the d'Este court and one of the centers of progressive musical activity in Italy, especially the madrigal. The relationship between Gesualdo and his new wife was not good; she accused him of abuse, and the Este family attempted to obtain a divorce. She spent more and more time away from the isolated estate. Gesualdo wrote many angry letters to Modena where she often went to stay with her brother. Historians wrote, "She seems to have been a very virtuous lady ... for there is no record of his having killed her."
Late in life, he suffered from depression and repeated dreams and hallucinations involving his dead wife. Gesualdo had himself beaten daily by his servants and he engaged in a relentless, and fruitless, correspondence with Cardinal Federico Borromeo to obtain relics with which he hoped to obtain healing for his mental disorder and possibly absolution for his crimes. His later works have a dark and disjointed edge that may have been rooted in an unstable mental state.
