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Michelangelo Merisi da CARAVAGGIO
(1573-1610)

A paradox, this celebrated painter of religious themes had an uncontrollable temper and was frequently engaged in brawls. The last four years of his life were basically spent on the lam. Having killed a man in a duel after losing a tennis match, he was forced to flee Rome. He was later pardoned by the Pope, but on his way back to Rome, he was arrested (for once by mistake), and contracted a fever and died at the age of 37.

An early Baroque artist, Caravaggio revolutionized the art of Europe with his dramatic paintings. In contrast to the Renaissance ideal of beauty, the naturalism which Caravaggio embraced wallowed in human weakness and imperfection, often to the chagrin of his patrons.

On February 6, 2001 John Nolan of Bob Jones University Museum will give a talk entitled "Caravaggio: 17th Century Painter of Reality" at the Spartanburg County Public Library. For more information on this and the rest of the Spartanburg County Museum of Art's lecture series, click here.

Caravaggio a quick look at a few of his paintings
Caravaggio from The Web Gallery of Art
Caravaggio from Top 30 Artists from the Artcyclopedia

A FEW WELL-KNOWN WORKS BY CARAVAGGIO &
SOME STORIES ABOUT THEM

• • • Most of the images whose links appear below can be enlarged by clicking on the image.

St. Matthew and the Angel
Around 1600, Caravaggio was commissioned to paint an image of St. Matthew for an altar in a church in Rome. In the scene he envisioned, the saint-to-be was a working-class man in tattered clothing and with dirty feet, overwhelmed that God had inspired him to write His Holy Word. Right beside him, guiding his clumsy and perhaps even illiterate hand, is an angel showing the patience of an ever-loving Father. When Caravaggio delivered the finished work to the church, people were appalled at his "lack of respect" for the Evangelist. The piece was rejected, and the master was instructed to try again. A second "failure" would have been devastating for both ego and career, so the artist took the safe route, crafting a work which conformed to contemporary ideas of what a saint should look like. Although the second version is still an accomplished piece of art, it lacks the imagination and intimacy which were embodied in the first painting.

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Death of the Virgin
When Caravaggio finished this commission for the Church of Sta. Maria della Scala, he found himself at the center of yet another scandal. According to one source, the model for the Mother of Christ was a prostitute with whom Caravaggio was known to cavort. By another account, the Madonna's legs were bare; the writer Bellori contended that the subject, with its pale and swollen body, was simply rendered too realistically to be considered tasteful. Regardless of the reason, when the church's clergy saw it, they wanted no part of the controversy and rejected the painting.

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David and Goliath
In depicting the story of the young shepherd who led the Hebrew army to victory by slaying his huge opponent with a sling, Caravaggio chose a moment after the victory in which David has beheaded the dead giant. This painting, however, is much more than just an illustration of a Biblical event. It is actually a double self-portrait, showing a youthful Caravaggio as the young David, disdainfully looking at his own image as the severed head. We can only guess at the inner-turmoil that inspired such a work. It brings to mind Michelangelo's depiction of himself as a flayed skin being held by St. Bartholomew in the Last Judgment.

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The Entombment of Christ
If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, then this great piece was extraordinarily appreciated as it continued to capture the imaginations of artists well after Caravaggio's death. Rubens used the work as a basis for his slightly altered version. Fraggonard is known to have sketched it, and Cezanne copied the painting as well.

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Caravaggio and Human Nature
One of the services that art provides to humanity is that it reminds us that human nature doesn't change. In the Fortune Teller, a naive young man is being seduced by the charms of a young woman, who, as she reads his fortune, is actually slipping his ring off of his finger. In a scene that could have taken place in a cowboy movie, the painting Cardsharps shows two men cheating a third man out of the pile of coins in the foreground by using signals to reveal the victim's hand. The Incredulity of Thomas underscores the common theme, "seeing is believing." In the Christian Gospel of St. John, upon hearing that some of his friends had seen a resurrected Jesus, the disciple Thomas proclaimed that until he touched the wounds of Christ he would not believe it. Later, Christ appeared and put the doubts of Thomas to rest.

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The Fruit Basket
The subject of this painting, a basket of fruit, is treated in a way which contrasts sharply from similar paintings in Renaissance art. Painting such a work often took weeks to complete, and due to the lack of refrigeration, the fruit would lose its freshness long before the painting was completed. In this case, Caravaggio has abandoned the ideal, choosing instead to represent the arrangement as it certainly was near the painting's completion, in a state of decay. The leaves have browned and are curling, the apple exhibits a bruise or hole in its side, and several of the grapes seem to be shriveling up.

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Information about Caravaggio's time

• HISTORICAL EVENTS:
  
  1564 - Michelangelo dies
  1564-1616 Shakespeare
  1564-1642 Galileo
  1573-1610 Caravaggio
  1588 - Spanish Armada defeated by the English
  1607 - Jamestown, Virginia founded
  1619 - Dutch ship brings first African slaves to the American colonies
  1620 - The Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock
  
  

• The Art Historian's Guide to the Movies
  THE BAROQUE

• The Artist's View of World History and Western Civilization
  THE BAROQUE
  • (comprehensive links pages for all of the arts and history)
  

A SAMPLING OF GREAT BAROQUE
PAINTERS & SCULPTORS from Italy:

• Bernini - The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa
• Canaletto - Arrival of the French Ambassador in Venice
• Guercino - Return of the Prodigal Son
• Tiepolo - Madonna of the Goldfinch
  
  The ArtLinks by Period Baroque Page

A TASTE OF GREAT BAROQUE
MUSIC from Italy:

• Albinoni - Adagio in G min
• Corelli - Allegro from the Concerto Grosso in G (Op.6 No.8) "Christmas Concerto"
• Scarlatti - Sonatas (complete, both Kilpatrick and Longo numbers)
• Vivaldi - 3rd. Movement from the Concerto for Harpsichord (RV780)

Music History 102: The Baroque (with RealPlayer sound files)
Library of music by the Baroque masters (midi files)

A SMATTERING OF GREAT BAROQUE
WRITERS & DRAMATISTS from Britain:

• Johnson (the Samuel Johnson Soundbite page)
• Swift - A Modest Proposal, Gulliver's Travels
  

17th Century English Literature

BAROQUE
DANCE:

• A History of Pointe Shoes and Pointe Technique
• The History of Ballet
• The English Dancing Master (1651 - with the original spellings)

 

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Content and page design by Scott Cunningham.