#ArtSaturday Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, 1571 1610, Italian painter
Caravaggio by Leoni Bild-Ottavio pic.twitter.com/2tvuqjHiwT
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Caravaggio is most famous for his dramatic realism combined with theatrical lighting which contrasts greatly with the darker portions of his paintings.Boy with a Bowl of Fruit, 1593 pic.twitter.com/sMqciT8YKz
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Caravaggio is known for his use of chiaroscuro (Italian for light-dark) where the darkness becomes a dominant feature of the images in the painting.The Cardsharps, 1594 pic.twitter.com/dDwHTNxt93
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Tenebrism, from the Italian “tenebroso” (murky), also called “dramatic illumination,” provides a dramatic contrast between light and dark areas in the paintings.The Fortuneteller, 1594 pic.twitter.com/B6FQWhIEnQ
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Caravaggio is often credited with inventing chiaroscuro, which eventually became known as tenebrism: dramatic shifts from light to dark in the painting with little blending or gradation of light between the two areas.St Francis of Assisi in Ecstacy, 1595 pic.twitter.com/LvCQNJD392
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Though Caravaggio is often credited with inventing chiaroscuro, other artists before him had used the technique, including Tintoretto and El Greco.The Musicians, 1595 pic.twitter.com/Y7xfpahjAY
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Instead of idealizing the sitters for his paintings, Caravaggio painted them extremely realistically, with all their physical flaws, which was considered a radical way of painting and was very controversial in his lifetime.David and Goliath, 1599 pic.twitter.com/Iip4onXiHk
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
David with the Head of Goliath, 1610 pic.twitter.com/sJnhdaquud
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Caravaggio’s peers disdained his method of painting as he did not do extensive drawings beforehand: Caravaggio did no drawings at all; he painted on the canvas while the subject sat for him.Bacchus, 1595 pic.twitter.com/jUBLBUuxtC
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Caravaggio painted so realistically that when he used local prostitutes as models, viewers were able to identify the women by name, and viewers were outraged that he used prostitutes as models in religious paintings.Martha and Mary Magdalene, 1598 pic.twitter.com/eZc7DDEBqT
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Caravaggio’s paintings sometimes caused outrage because he showed subjects bare legs.Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence (also, The Adoration), 1600 pic.twitter.com/Ep6eDYeNB1
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Contemporaneous critics especially disliked Caravaggio’s use of prostitutes as models for female saints and for the Virgin Mary.Death of the Virgin, 1604 pic.twitter.com/eDaGNXaZ95
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
When Caravaggio’s Jesus reveals himself at supper to his disciples, he is an extremely human figure, i.e., without the usual de rigueur haloSupper at Emmaus, 1601 pic.twitter.com/00p32gTt6t
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Supper at Emmaus, 1601, detail pic.twitter.com/p46G17WUEF
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Caravaggio’s second version of Supper at Emmaus, 1606, came after a turbulent time in his life, and this may be why the painting is darker, the colors more subdued, and the figures’ gestures more restrained. pic.twitter.com/ohCSxznGju— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
During his lifetime, Caravaggio’s critics were often more interested in his personal life and his sexuality than in his work.The Calling of St Matthew, 1599-1600 pic.twitter.com/ELYwU8eALK
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
An early published notice (1605) on Caravaggio mentioned his brawling. In 1606, he killed a young man in a brawl and fled Rome to escape the death sentence.The Burial of Christ, 1603 pic.twitter.com/rKGuXTUcGu
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Though Caravaggio had established relationships with several prostitutes, he also had male “companions,” some of whom served as models, leading many to accuse Caravaggio of homosexuality, which was illegal.St John the Baptist in the Wilderness, 1604 pic.twitter.com/oZqGwYBfLf
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Caravaggio painted several versions of St John the Baptist.1598 (note St John’s attire and the lamb…) pic.twitter.com/doIBE9RLEx
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
In 1602, Caravaggio’s St John was displayed nude, full frontal, leering, with a ram… As you can imagine, contemporaneous viewers were shocked and angry. His future St John, though still a youth, was more modest.St John the Baptist at the Fountain, 1608 pic.twitter.com/cnRitYaK3X
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Despite Caravaggio’s well-known relationships with prostitutes and courtesans, many believed him to be homosexual, and his relationships with attractive young men brought on charges of illegal, i.e., criminal, sexual acts.Penitent Magdalene, 1594 pic.twitter.com/f8MrNZXK8V
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
It was not Caravaggio’s alleged homosexuality (or bi-sexuality) that alienated patrons but his brawls, street-fights, banishment, and murder charges that caused problems with patrons who wanted religious paintings.Medusa, 1597-98 pic.twitter.com/pBkZe9ZGe0
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1599 pic.twitter.com/R5ell7xzQy
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
St Paul’s Conversion on the Road to Damascus, 1600 pic.twitter.com/4fDQKmbTna
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Madonna of the Rosary, 1607 pic.twitter.com/noYxjItdKE
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, 1607-1610 pic.twitter.com/53myUJiO3O
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Salome, 1609 pic.twitter.com/20MImOD5ZR
— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
Caravaggio had a fever at the time of his death, though the cause of death was long unknown: syphilis, food poisoning, and malaria have all been proposed over the centuries.The Taking of Christ, 1604
(The figure at the extreme right is a self-portrait.) pic.twitter.com/gst2ptmebo— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
#ArtSaturday Caravaggio
DNA tests and carbon-dating (2010) on Caravaggio’s remains suggest the artist died of fatal wounds and ensuing sepsis: Vatican documents released in 2002 suggest the wounds may have been an enemy’s attempts at castration; Caravaggio killed his attacker. pic.twitter.com/VBzbJ1Qbdp— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) May 4, 2019
Related Posts
on my Art Saturday page
