CARAVAGGIO - PowerPoint Presentation

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CARAVAGGIO

Birth name:

Michelangelo

Merisi

de Caravaggio

Born:

29 Sep

1571 Milan, Italy

Death:

16 Jul

1610

ItalySlide2

Introduction

Assault. Murder. Consorting with the devil. The notorious succès-de-scandale of the 17th century, Michelangelo

Merisi da Caravaggio was accused of all of these and more during his tempestuous career.Condemned as the 

"antichrist of painting," Caravaggio was as controversial for his revolutionary artworks as he was for his infamous temper and lengthy police record.

A

notorious painter during his life, following his death Caravaggio was largely forgotten and it wasn't until the 20th century that his key role in the development of Western art was remembered.

Despite

a scandalous lifestyle helping to preserve interest in Caravaggio throughout the centuries, in the end, it is the true genius of his works that has won his place in the history of art as well as in the contemporary imagination

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Introduction

Caravaggio's works constitute some of the most stunning works in the entire history of Western painting.Observing the evolution of his style from his early works (The Fortune Teller, Bacchus and Narcissus) to his major successes (The Calling of Saint Matthew and Doubting Thomas) to his final paintings (David with the Head of Goliath) is like watching the tumultuous ups and downs of his life.

Although

chiaroscuro was used long before Caravaggio came onto the art scene it was he who defined the technique and darkened the shadows. The artist's observation of physical and psychological reality strengthened his popularity but caused problems with his religious assignments.

A

prolific artist, Caravaggio worked quickly, using live models and using the end of his brush handle to score basic outlines of his work. His preference for working directly onto the canvas was alien to his peers and they accused him of idealizing his figures.Slide4

Personal Life

Caravaggio takes his name from the town in which he was born in 1571 to a majordomo in a region of Italy known as Lombardy. The artist was born during the politically and spiritually tumultuous time of the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic church was trying to regroup after the Protestant Reformation, and this historical context had an indelible impact on his personal and artistic

development.Caravaggio's father died from the plague when the artist was only 6 years old.

At age 13, Caravaggio was apprenticed to Milanese artist Peterzano, who instructed the young man in the basics of the craft, such as preparing pigments, mixing

colors

, and the rudiments of drawing, anatomy, and perspective.

The

unprecedented naturalism that marked Caravaggio's mature style most likely had its roots here: there was a markedly naturalist trend in the art of the Lombardy region, and art historian Helen Langdon suggests that

Peterzano

may have encouraged the young Caravaggio to study from

nature

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Personal Life

Still a young man, Caravaggio moved to Rome in 1592, where he spent his first years in utter poverty, painting for the open market.

His career got a much-needed jumpstart when the influential art lover Cardinal del Monte took the young artist under his wing and became his first steady patron.

Caravaggio attracted an overwhelming share of virulent critics and enemies: socially, he was a belligerent, rude, violent and finally homicidal hot head, while artistically, he was a daring rule breaker who thwarted the classical rules of art.

At

the same time, however, his ability to depict religious scenes with an unprecedented approachability and the most human of feelings and sentiment provided invaluable inspiration for artists throughout the ages, including such masters as Rubens, Velasquez and Rembrandt.Slide6

Influences

Michelangelo: Even Caravaggio couldn't resist drawing inspiration from the lesson of the great Renaissance master, Michelangelo. Caravaggio would have had ample opportunity to observe Michelangelo's works all across Rome, especially in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's influence is clear in Caravaggio's The Calling of Saint Matthew, where Christ's hand is an exact reflection of the hand of Adam.

Leonardo da Vinci:

 No succeeding Italian artist could paint without some evidence of da Vinci in his works, whether it was intended or not.

Dürer

:

Although a native of far away Germany, the influence of this genius of the Renaissance extended as far as Italy. Caravaggio could have known

Dürer's

works thanks to the freely circulating copies of his engravings and prints.

Northern art:

Especially in his early works, Caravaggio reveals a remarkable skill for still-

lifes

, particularly fruits and flowers, as is evident in works like Basket of Fruit, Bacchus and The Lute Player. This subject was imported to Italy from the sumptuous pictures of fruits and flowers that abounded in Dutch and Flemish art, notably in the works of artists like Pieter

Aertsen

and Joachim

Beuckelaer

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Artistic Context/Cultural

Caravaggio is a pioneer of the Italian Baroque style that grew out of the Mannerist era. Italian Baroque art was not widely different to Italian Renaissance painting but the color palette was richer and darker and the theme of religion was more popular.At

the end of the 16th century, Caravaggio was fortunate to be working during the Counter Reformation, when virtually the entire city of Rome underwent a construction project as the Catholic Church renovated old churches and constructed new ones in an effort to attract Protestant converts back to the faith. All these new spaces needed lavish amounts of decoration, and artists were all too ready to fill that need.

As well as this, Caravaggio was also exposed to a new interest in scientific naturalism flourishing in northern Italy, due in part to the influx of artworks from northern Europe. Consequently, Caravaggio developed a style of unflinching realism, unprecedented approachability and a direct appeal to the emotions that had no equal among his peers and helped to mould 17th century Italian art

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Formal Framework

Caravaggio's works were so controversial in their own time (and for centuries after) for their utterly innovative, revolutionary style. The intense, dramatic contrasts of light and dark, resolute realism, meticulous attention to naturalistic detail and approachable, life-like models set Caravaggio's paintings apart from all the masters that preceded

him.Caravaggio's first known paintings date from his arrival in Rome in 1592. During these first years, he was completely destitute and painted small genre scenes, self-portraits and still-

lifes to earn money on the open market.From

1595 onwards, Caravaggio's career was boosted when the influential Cardinal del Monte welcomed him into his court. The young artist executed paintings for the Cardinal and took advantage of his connections to garner prime commissions from Rome's wealthiest patrons and

collectors

The

artist's compositions became more complex and contained various characters. Additionally Caravaggio's pictures became darker during this

time.Slide9

AMOR VINCIT OMNIASlide10

Caravaggio's depiction of Cupid, rather than the cherub-like, idealized boy, is realistic, from the crooked grin to the tousled head of hair.

The painting was commissioned by a rich patron Vincenzo Guistanini, who retained it in his possession and reportedly loved it above all others.

The painting was an immediate success, and inspired contemporary artworks, including poems and epigrams along the same theme.

Caravaggio, Amor Vincit Omnia

, 1601–02, oil on canvas, 191 x 148cm, Gemäldegalerie, BerlinSlide11

In this painting, the boy is knowing and insolent, rather than heroic or

ideal. His pose seems to derive from 's Victory, but unlike that precarious hero, he is firmly in the saddle. He is triumphant over the intellectual life: music (the old-style lute, the new

Cremonese violin, and the score, with the incipit beginning with V, perhaps for Vincenzo), geometry (the T square and compass), and astronomy (the blue globe with stars)Slide12

The subtlety of the painting is not limited to the theme.

The left background is strangely incomplete, with incomprehensible marks above the musical instruments, as if Caravaggio had carelessly rubbed the pigment off his brushes there.

The change between warm and cool neutrals in the upper and the right backgrounds makes clear that he lavished attention on it. The lack

of any division between wall and floor seems to remind us that the figure and the objects are illusory from the canvas rather than from the room, as the painter's

creations.

The disproportion between the short right arm, the long legs, and the large head and the short, but well-developed, torso suggests

that Caravaggio

was deliberately utilizing the forms as well as the pose of the Victory. Slide13

Summary

By all accounts, Caravaggio (1571–1610) was a volatile and violent man. He led a life marked by murder and exile and died before he was 40. Given these experiences, he painted many scenes of struggle, torture and death in his relatively short career. He was born at a time when the classical idealism of Michelangelo was considered the height of beauty.

Like Michelangelo, he painted from life, but his models were ordinary people, including street children and prostitutes; and, in his religious paintings, they did not look particularly holy. This was controversial – while it was easier for ordinary people to identify with the characters in his religious stories, many of his patrons thought his figures were vulgar and some refused to accept and pay for his work. Slide14

Amor Vincit Omnia was inspired by a line from the Roman poet Virgil, ‘Love conquers all: let us yield to love!’

and was a common theme at the time.In the painting, we see the young god Amor, known to the ancient Romans as Cupid,

spot lit against a dark and poorly defined background. On his back is a pair of powerful eagle’s wings and at his feet are symbols of war, music and learning. The young figure was painted from a model and reflects the artist’s acute observation of reality.

Amor makes eye contact with the viewer and his cheeky grin is endearing.

Caravaggio,

Amor Vincit Omnia

, 1601–02, oil on canvas, 191 x 148cm, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin