Caravaggio and the New Naturalism

Caravaggio

• Born 1571 in Milan
• Exiled to his death 1610 on a beach
• Sept. 29th Baptism
• Left Milan at 5, 1576 because of plague
• moved to Caravaggio
• Mother died in 1584
• Was apprentice to Simone
• Trained with Titian
• One of mysteries is his early work
• After apprenticeship, visited Venice
• A lot of speculation comes from looking at work he was familiar with specifically Leonardo di Vinci
• Very careful painter
• Very interested in Venetian painting techniques
• Style of painting: tight brushstrokes, very Milanese
• Been seen more like Venetians
• Create shapes from actual contour lines
• Becomes known for Naturalism
• His Naturalism is seen as extreme-Extreme Naturalism
• Caravaggism*
• Strong phases of style in Baroque period
• 1592- around 1599 Roman period characterized by certain types of works
• Overlapping never really neat
• Gets some of his first great commissions
• 1592 visit Rome
• Gets in trouble
• Requires patronage, sets the tone
• Gets hired in studio by important painter to the Pope
• Fruit and flower specialist
• Typical only having paintings certain sizes
• Life sized figures only painted half
• Neutral background
• Subjects/subject matter reflects type of art from Northern artist
• Allowed to sell works in local shop
• Work began to get noticed quickly
• Early works were collected
• Smart artist
• Probably had training with figures
• Would have been person assisting in these types of works
• Economical in producing paintings quickly
• Typical of this period, not just straight forward subject matters, but beyond that, subject and its meaning

Portrait of Caravaggio

• Octavio Leoni
• 1621-25
• Early modern
• Ealy Baroque

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio

Conversion of Saul (St. Paul)

• 1600-01
• Baroque:Italian
• Early Modern
• Early Baroque
• First monumental period in Rome
• Profound transformation
• Elements of nature
• No obvious light source

https://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/midterm-2/deck/2718829

David with the Head of Goliath (detail)

• Self portrait
• Similarity between this and Ottavio’s Caravaggio portrait

http://www.wga.hu/html_m/c/caravagg/11/70david1.html

Butcher’s Stall (with the Flight into Egypt)

• Pieter Aersten
• 1551
• Dutch
• Early Modern
• Late Renaissance
• New kind of subject matter for meditation after Council of Trent
• Religious subject matter
• Reverse of subject importance
• Number of still life objects
• What Caravaggio would have been doing as an apprentice
• Attention to still life/objects
• Things are rarely what they seem

The Fortune Teller

• Caravaggio
• 1595
• Culture:Italian
• Early Modern
• Early Baroque
• France
• Was in Palatzo
• This works picks up prestige
• Fine surface
• Create sense of more engaged viewer
• Co-extension of space
• Made like figures are apart of our space (the sword’s position)
• Man considered a “Bravo”-young man with sword who went around town picking fights

Still-life, Basket of Fruits

• 1600-01
• Italian
• Early Baroque
• Was collected by Cardinal Federico
• Admired for its fidelity to nature
• Imperfect fruits/ decayed
• Not idealized
• Painting from natural; his goal
• Simple composition with co-extension of space with cast shadow

http://westerncivart.com/items/show/2776

Bacchus

• 1595
• Early Baroque
• Italian
• god of wine
• Drawn from a reflection made during period in studio with Cavallari
• Realizing more complex elements
• Still neutral color background, but darker
• Get strong sense of direction and light
• Bacchus utilized as Christ-like figure
• Co-extension of space

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacchus_%28Caravaggio%29

Boy Bitten by a Lizard

• 1595
• Painted for sale
• Admired for the way reflections are represented
• Captured a moment
• Self-conscious;naturalistic in treatment

Doubting Thomas

• 1602-03
• Italian
• Early Baroque
• Continues to paint “bread and butter” works for patrons
• See incorporation of religious subject matter of St. Thomas
• Not shown in graphic matter
• Became familiar with this subject matter
• Classical notion of subject matter of figure pointing at the wound and not in
• More than half figures and dark background

http://www.artble.com/artists/caravaggio/paintings/doubting_thomas

Super at Emmaus

• 1601
• Also known as Pilgrimage of Our Lord to Emmaus.
• Commissioned by Ciriaco Mattei, a brother of cardinal Mattei in whose Roman palazzo Caravaggio lived at the time.
• Inspired by Titian
• The still-life elements on the table have symbolic meanings. The bread and the wine obviously refer to the Eucharist that is taking place. The grapes in turn refer to the wine, the apples to the Fall of Man, and the pomegranates symbolize the Church. So the table is not an ordinary table but an altar.

http://www.artbible.info/art/large/28.html

The Taking of Christ

• 1602-03
• Caravaggio has gone even darker
• More figures involved
• In the act of being betrayed and taken in the Garden of Gethsemane by soldiers who were led to him by one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot.
• Caravaggio focuses on the culminating moment of Judas’ betrayal, as he grasps Christ and delivers his treacherous kiss
• Presented in coherent and consistent pattern

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/caravbr-2.htm

The Calling of St. Matthew

• 1599-1603
• Early Modern
• Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi del Francesi, Rome
• Had zero previous works at this scale; was a challenge
• Admired for the way light goes from left to right
• Kind of emotional effect admired
• depicting the moment at which Jesus Christ inspires Matthew to follow him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Calling_of_St_Matthew_%28Caravaggio%29

The Martyrdom of St. Matthew

• Hangs opposite The Calling of Saint Matthew and beside the altarpiece The Inspiration of Saint Matthew
• First of the three to be installed in the chapel, in July 1600

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martyrdom_of_Saint_Matthew_%28Caravaggio%29

Inspiration  of St. Matthew

• Vertical altar piece with horizontal works on each side
• Iconic and narrative image
• Take into account actual light coming into the chapel
• Window above in chapel indicates looking at the shutter

http://www.wga.hu/html_m/c/caravagg/04/26conta.html

Crucifixion of St. Peter

• 1600-01
• Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome
• Creates an “x”
• Few elements of color to give a sense of depth
• Use of tenebrism
• Peter asked that his cross be inverted so as not to imitate his God, Jesus Christ, hence he is depicted upside-down.
• Peter is heavier than his aged body would suggest, and his lifting requires the efforts of three men, as if the crime they perpetrate already weighs on them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion_of_St._Peter_%28Caravaggio%29

Entombment

• 1602-04
• Chiesa Nuova, Vatican, Rome
• Probably the most monumental of Caravaggio’s work
• Dedicated to the Pietà.
• The desent from the cross of the corpse and the entombment are actually secondary to the Mourning of Mary which is the focal point of the lamentation.
• Refused to portray the human individual as sublime, beautiful and heroic.
• His figures are bowed, bent, cowering, reclining or stooped. The self confident and the statuesque have been replaced by humility and subjection.

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/his/CoreArt/art/bar_cvggo_entom.html

Madonna di Loreto

• 1603-06
• in the Cavalletti Chapel of the church of Sant’Agostino
• In 1603 the heirs of marquis Ermete Cavalletti, who had died on 21 July 1602, commissioned for the decoration of a family chapel a painting on the theme of the Madonna of Loreto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_di_Loreto_%28Caravaggio%29

Death of the Virgin

• 1601-03
• Early Modern “15th-19th c.
• Baroque: Italian
• Louvre Museum, Paris
• Caravaggio had been working in Rome for fifteen years.
• The painting was commissioned by Laerzio Cherubini, a papal lawyer, for his chapel in the Carmelite church of Santa Maria della Scala in Trastevere, Rome
• The depiction of the Death of the Virgin caused a contemporary stir, and was rejected as unfit by the parish.
• Giulio Mancini(was a seicento physician, art collector, art dealer and writer on a range of subjects) thought Caravaggio modelled a prostitute, possibly his mistress, as the Virgin.
• led to a rejection of the painting by the fathers of Santa Maria della Scala and its replacement by a picture by Carlo Saraceni, a close follower of Caravaggio.
• Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish Baroque painter), who praised it as one of Caravaggio’s best works, the painting was bought by Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_the_Virgin_%28Caravaggio%29

Judith and Holofernes

• 1599
• Barbernini Palace, Rome
• Clearly and harshly drawn figures characterize this gruesome scene.
• The servant holds the bag as Judith cuts off the head of Holophernes, the leader of the enemy troops.
• In an earlier version, Judith’s breasts were visible. Caravaggio later added the blouse.

http://www.artbible.info/art/large/11.html

The Flagellation of Christ

• 1607
• Commissioned by the di Franco (or de Franchis) family for a chapel in the church of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples.
• The family were connected with the Confraternity of the Pio Monte della Misericordia, for whose church Caravaggio had already painted The Seven Works of Mercy.
• Had long been a popular subject in religious art—and in contemporary religious practice, where the church encouraged self-flagellation as a means by which the faithful might enter into the suffering of Christ.
• Caravaggio’s painting introduces an acutely observed reality into the scene: Christ is in this drooping pose, not because it might seem graceful, but because the torturer on the right is kicking the back of his knee while the figure on the left holds his hair tightly in his fist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flagellation_of_Christ_%28Caravaggio%29

Seven Acts of Mercy

• 1606-07
• Pio Monte della Misericordia, Naples
• depicts the seven corporal works of mercy in traditional Catholic belief, which are a set of compassionate acts concerning the material welfare of others.
• was made for, and is still housed in, the church of Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples. Originally it was meant to be seven separate panels around the church; however, Caravaggio combined all seven works of mercy in one composition which became the church’s altarpiece. The painting is better seen from il “coreto” (little choir) in the first floor.
  Bury the dead- In the background, two men carry a dead man (of whom only the feet are visible).
• Visit the imprisoned, and feed the hungry– On the right, a woman visits an imprisoned man and gives him milk from her breast. This image alludes to the classical story of Roman Charity.
• Shelter the homeless- A pilgrim (third from left, as identified by the shell in his hat) asks an innkeeper (at far left) for shelter.
• Clothe the naked– St. Martin of Tours, fourth from the left, has torn his robe in half and given it to the naked beggar in the foreground, recalling the saint’s popular legend.
• Visit the sick– St. Martin greets and comforts the beggar who is a cripple.
• Refresh the thirsty– Samson (second from the left) drinks water from the jawbone of an ass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Works_of_Mercy_%28Caravaggio%29