The talent and drama of the life of the artist Caravaggio - a cruel man from cruel times

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Caravaggio's hot temper was as famous as his canvases. He was a cruel man, but he lived in cruel times. His inconsistency is revealed in his biography (he often took part in criminal acts and was imprisoned) and continues in his works (deep realism and extreme cruelty manifested itself even in religious works, which led to an ambiguous assessment of the church as the customer of these paintings).

Drama of life

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (September 29, 1571 - July 18, 1610) - controversial and one of the most influential artists of the 16th century.

Speaking about the biography, it is important to note that all the dramatic events were reflected in the colors and subjects of his canvases. The drama began almost immediately after the birth of the artist, which took place a week before the Battle of Lepanto, a bloody conflict in which the Turkish invaders were expelled from Christendom. When Caravaggio was six years old, the bubonic plague swept through his life. Although the artist and his family retreated to the village of Caravaggio, by October 1577 his father, grandfather, paternal grandmother and uncle had died of the plague. By 1592, at the age of 21, Caravaggio had also lost his mother and younger brother. According to writer Andrew Graham-Dixon, author of the 2011 biography Caravaggio: “It’s like he cannot avoid crime. As soon as he is patronized by a noble person, the Pope greets, the Knights of Malta are invited, he must do something to ruin everything. This is almost a fatal mistake. Indeed, despite his talent and brilliant work, Caravaggio had to overcome a lot. After the death of all his relatives, the artist moved to work in Milan and earned a living through portrait painting.

He moved to Rome, but his career was short-lived. Caravaggio killed a man during a fight and fled Rome. He died shortly thereafter, on July 18, 1610. Milan at the end of the 16th century was a dangerous, cruel place. It was a setting ripe for the temptation and provocation of a young and already traumatized temperamental artist. After participating in the murder, the artist fled to Rome in 1592 and remained there until 1606. Here Caravaggio spent several months as an assistant to the painter Giuseppe Cesari, a popular fresco painter. From Cesari, Caravaggio learned to depict background flowers and fruits, which allowed him to pay attention to the details and nuances of still lifes.

Also in Rome, his work became popular thanks to the tenebrism technique - the use of shadow to emphasize light areas. Caravaggio's time in Rome ended dramatically. Caravaggio was implicated in numerous violent crimes and accidents, and often defended himself from prosecution. In one of the most striking episodes, on April 24, 1604, Caravaggio began a fight with a waiter, during which he smashed his face with a plate. Caravaggio's emotional nature and problems with the law reached their climax on May 28, 1606, when Caravaggio killed his former friend Ranuccio Tomassoni, possibly in the context of a duel over his second wife. Caravaggio fled Rome before formal murder charges were brought against him: he was sentenced to indefinite exile, convicted as a murderer, and subsequently sentenced to death.

The artist then spent nine months in the Spanish-controlled city of Naples, arriving there by September 1606. During this period, Caravaggio began to experiment more with color and contrast. In 1607, Caravaggio moved to Malta and received the patronage of General Fabrizio Sforza Colonna. During his stay in Malta, Caravaggio achieved great success and prominence, and on July 14, 1608, he was called to the Order of the Knights of Malta. His work from this period is distinctive (again, life changes) - he began to paint with faster strokes and used more reddish-brown shades. The artist returned to the Apennine peninsula only to die.

Influence

Although only 21 works were attributed to the artist, Caravaggio made a huge artistic impact on his colleagues in those years and today. By 1605, other Roman artists were beginning to emulate his signature style. Rembrandt and Diego Velazquez incorporated Caravaggio's dramatic lighting effects into their own works. The style of Caravaggio quickly acquired loyal followers of the "caravaggists" who filled their compositions with his principles of pictorial art. Caravaggio's work shaped the work of many later artists, from Rembrandt in Holland and Diego Velazquez in Spain to Theodore Gericault in France. His dramatic sense of production and innovative treatment of light and shadow have also directly inspired many leading filmmakers, including Pier Paolo Pasolini and Martin Scorsese. Caravaggio has been identified as an example of the late Mannerist style or as a harbinger of the Baroque era.

Religious themes

Caravaggio humanized divine personalities, making them people of the lower class. Thus, Caravaggio criticized both the idealized figures of the Italian Renaissance and Roman classical traditions. At times, his "naturalism" was too great for his patrons. It was felt that his portrayal of religious figures sometimes bordered on the "vulgar". But conveying the truth, his paintings were able to convey deep emotions and spirituality. For 5 years, his religious paintings were considered the most spectacular in Rome. His naturalistic style had to be well suited to the needs of Catholic counter-Reformation art, as established by the Council of Trent, but some were considered too cruel by the ecclesiastical authorities and rejected. The artist portrayed the bloody dramas of the distant sacred past so realistically, as if they were taking place in our days. He emphasized the poverty and common humanity of Christ and his followers, apostles, saints and martyrs. Accentuating their torn clothes and dirty feet. He also developed the original chiaroscuro technique, using extreme contrasts of light and dark to emphasize details of a gesture or facial expression: an outstretched hand, an expression of despair or longing.

Conversion of Saul

The Conversion of Saul is one of two paintings commissioned by Tiberio Serazi, treasurer of Clement VIII (reigned 1592-1605) for his chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. Another painting was "The Crucifixion of St. Peter". These works - both of which still hang in the chapel - were second versions, as the first versions of Caravaggio were rejected. Another version says that Caravaggio himself, having discovered that the chapel, for which the first painting was intended, was rebuilt, found it unsuitable for the new architectural space and decided to portray the plot differently. The picture describes an episode that happened to Saul (the future Apostle Paul) on the way from Jerusalem to Damascus and is described in the New Testament (Acts of the Holy Apostles: Acts 9: 3-7). Caravaggio captured the moment when Saul lies on the ground, fallen from his horse, stunned by the fall and blinded by a blinding radiance. This light symbolizes the Voice of God. And it is this light, surpassing the sunshine, that will describe Caravaggio first of all. The light is of such intensity that outside of it everything is darkness. The figure of a horse looks the most striking: occupying the entire upper and middle part of the picture, it violates the classical canon of art, which prohibits an animal in a historical or religious picture. As always, Caravaggio demonstrates his mastery of chiaroscuro, the shading used to add volume to the figures, and tenebrism, the dramatic use of shadow and light to focus the viewer's attention on key areas of his work. After his death, these pictorial elements will become the hallmarks of "caravaggism" and will inspire artists throughout Europe.

The archives of the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo contain a record of an interesting dialogue between the rector of the church and the artist: - Why do you have a horse in the middle, and Saul, the future Apostle Paul, is lying on the ground? you God? - No, she is only illuminated by divine light.

Although Caravaggio was forgotten after his death, he eventually became the recognized founding father of modern painting. He was a key artist in the transition of art from dry mannerism to a new style of baroque, which influenced the Renaissance period and many future masters, from Diego Velazquez to Rembrandt.