Caravaggio: the Other Michelangelo

Annamaria on Monday

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was the most famous painter in Rome at the dawn of the 17th century. He achieved this fame with his radical technique called chiaroscuro, the abrupt juxtaposition of light and dark. But more important were the scenes he chose to paint: crucial moments in life or in biblical times, almost always when the people featured were violently struggling - physically or emotionally. In retrospect, it is easy to see how beautifully the abrupt switch from light to dark goes with the subject matter.  But, in fact, Caravaggio was the first ever to paint in exactly that way.

His way of composing his paintings shaped the then emerging style of the Baroque and influenced the work of Peter Paul Rubens and Gian Lorenzo Bernini.  And it also spawned ranks of other followers, none of whom in my opinion made pictures that are even a patch on Caravaggio's.  Some scholars say that he was the first modern artist. His work was that revolutionary!

Regular readers of MIE may recall a blog I posted about how Bernini, in his unsurpassed masterpieces, turned stone into incredibly dramatic moments. It occurred to me today that the young Bernini might very well have gotten that propensity of dramatic moments from the work of Caravaggio who was the most famous painter in Rome at the time that the child Bernini arrived there.

I have previously preached in these precincts on my deep-seated prejudice against rejecting an artist's work because one disapproves of how he behaved in his private life.  The personal behaviors of Caravaggio present another case in point.  He was hot tempered and a street brawler who once had to escape Rome to avoid execution after he killed a man.  Biographers of Caravaggio often devote themselves to speculations about his mental health and his sexual proclivities.  Fascinating as it may be for some to dwell at length about his lifestyle, what matters to me is that he, though he lived only 38 years, gave us these and many, many others.

 

The Musicians

The Conversion of St. Paul

Judith and Head of Holofernes 

David with the Head of Goliath

Amor Vincit Omnia

Italians put names of artists on their streets and on their money.  Evidently they agree with me, that it is the quality of the art that counts, not the personal story of the artist.  Here is the consummate artist, cum street brawler on the !00 thousand lira note!