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Caravaggio
Death of the Virgin, 1606
His "Death of the Virgin" is one of the undisputed
masterpieces of Caravaggio. In it the grief of Martha and the other
mourners is deeply realistic and moving. In painting this picture,
Caravaggio had carefully studied the impressionistic manner of Titian
and was beginning to adopt a harsh and resolute chiaroscuro with the
light restricted and the canvas mostly black.
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Michelangelo Amerigi da
Caravaggio (1569 - 1609)
What is known as the Neapolitan School of Painters originated with Michelangelo
Amerigi, called Caravaggio after his birthplace near Milan where he first saw
the light in 1569. Undaunted by the great achievements of the Italian masters
who immediately preceded him, Caravaggio sought to form an independent style of
his own, instead of slavishly copying Titian, Tintoretto, Raphael and Michel
Angelo. As Sir William Orpen points out, Caravaggio saw the error of his
contemporaries and "perceiving that art based on art leads to decadence, he gave
his whole attention to nature and so became a pioneer of realism." "His real
fight," observes Professor Mather, "was with the nobility of Raphael. His saints
are taken from the streets and often from the gutters. He loves character above
all, and wants it proletarian. Within his chosen limitations he admittedly is a
powerful and sincere artist."
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The Penitent Magdalene
Caravaggio,
1594-1596 |
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Both at Rome and Naples this sturdy, swaggering Caravaggio appears to have had
an immense success. His pictures—especially portraits—are said to have commanded
better prices than were obtained by any of his contemporaries. He boasted
himself the greatest painter of all time, and was often believed. From his
swarthy tones his school of disciples took the name of Tenebrists. The novelty
in his treatment chiefly consisted of the use Caravaggio made of light and shade
(technically known as chiaroscuro) to render his pictures more dramatically
intense. He exaggerated his shadows which, to quote Orpen, "were far too black
to be scrupulously faithful to nature, but by the emphasis he thus gave to his
lights he produced original and arresting effects which undoubtedly had a
powerful influence on the two greatest painters of the next generation—Velasquez
and Rembrandt." |
Rest On The Flight Into Egypt, 1596 |
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David Showing Goliath's Head, 1605 |
In his own time, Caravaggio's experiments in interior and artificial lighting
were widely imitated, and again are to be seen in modern impressionistic
painting. His rejection of noble form—of the idealistic method—in favor of what
one sees with the naked eye, and of decorative color in favor of natural, was a
sharp and direct challenge of the Renaissance style, and outside of Italy where
the noble tradition was only incipient, Caravaggio did much to arrest its
influence. Mather goes on to say, "From the point of view of modern art there
are few more important figures than that of Caravaggio. From the point of view
of art broadly he has his serious limitations. Most damaging is his waiver of
civilization, he looks at low life not with the eyes of a detached artist but
with those of a ruffian. |
Nor did he live up to his own formula. His contemporaries regarded the
Caravaggio method as 'too natural'. A modern realist would make the far more
radical criticism that Caravaggio is not natural enough. He really makes no
close study of the subtleties of natural appearance or of the actual refinements
of illumination. Logically he should have gone forward with Ribera and Velasquez
to a real investigation of appearances. But his logic was only that of scorn,
and it would doubtless have somewhat compensated him for a sordid and premature
end, could he have foreseen that his biographers would credit him with the ruin
of Italian painting."
Caravaggio's love for the low life, symbolized in his famous picture "The Card
Players," led him to commit a murder in a gambling quarrel at Rome. To avoid
paying the penalty of this act he escaped to Naples and then to Malta where his
fierce temper again landed him in prison. Later, being pardoned, he set forth
for Rome, where he died of a fever..
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