History of World Art II: Day 46

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571 – 1610) simply known as Caravaggio was an Italian artist who worked actively in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. He was a painter who combined realism with dramatic lighting techniques which greatly influenced Baroque painting.

He worked during the Counter-Reformation for the Catholic church as the searched desperately for art to rival the threat of Protestantism which was becoming wide-spread. Mannerism seemed antiquated and Caravaggio's new style was more similar to the naturalism that Protestantism was so fond. It is interesting that they seemed to influence him greatly, and he in turn influenced them so greatly that the Dutch Golden Age was born - the greatest Dutch painters (Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals) emulated his style and used his devices. The devices he used where dramatic settings full of tension, action, with a detached emotion. Like actors in a play he used strong lights and dark backgrounds to focus the viewers gaze. He used light sources and back lighting and shadow play to create a vignette appearance, and light seems to emanate from within in religious scenes. Jesus and Mary Magdalene glow brighter then the crowd that bears him in Entombment from the Chapel of Pietro Vittrice, Santa Maria in Vallicella, Rome (c. 1603) and he also uses the jutting edge of stone to make it look like Jesus will be laid directly on the altar of the Chapel. His style of employing dark and light to create theatrical contrast with little mid-range value became known as chiaroscuro or tenebrism (from Italian tenebroso which means shadowy or murky) and his followers (past and present) are often called Tenebrists or "Tenebrosi" ("shadowists").

He was a scoundrel and in between commissions would drink heavily and start fights. In a documentary I saw about him, it said we know so much about him because of extensive police and court records that were filed. He also badgered rival artists publicly and in writing, so badly that he was taken to court for defamation of character in one case. He carried a sword, and during a brawl in 1606 he killed a young man and fled from Rome, until he was brought back by the church for a commission. There were several brawls which were possible attempts on his own live over the next few years, and by 1610 he was dead.

He was an infamous character while alive, but was promptly forgotten after his death. He greatly influence 17th century Baroque art, and now in modern times he is recognized as the artist whose work began modern painting.