Caravaggio's life and his artworks
I read the journal article " Caravaggio and Vasari's Lives" wrote by Sharon Gregory. IN this article, Gregory first summarized Caravaggio's biography and highlighted why Caravaggio is different compared to the contemporary High Renaissance artists. Then, Gregory discussed Caravaggio’s intense realism and tenebrism artistic style by listing his artworks, lastly, Sharon Gregory expressed her opinion that Caravaggio was, instead, competing on his own terms with artists whose fame was assuredl to this end, he responded to passages in Vasari’s Lives. ( Gregory 172).
Plague killed Caravaggio’s father and grandfather when he was 5. His mother died when he was 19. Caravaggio moved to Rome in 1593. He started learning painting and received patron from Cardinal Del Monte. In 1599, Caravaggio won the commission to paint Saint Matthew in Contarelli Chapel. But in 1610, he had a duel and killed his opponent. He was charged murder and escaped from Rome to Naples. He tried to come back to Rome but he dead when he was 39 due to a fever. Caravaggio had an interesting and legendary life. He was talented and bad temper. He left a mixed review by others. In Gregory’s article, she mentioned Bellori’s review about Caravaggio. “Caravaggio is lacked invenzione, decorum, disegno, or any knowledge of the science of painting.” (Gregory 168) Also, Caravaggio’s artworks and his life was written as one of the chapter of Vasari’s Lives of the Artists.
The journal also mentioned about Caravaggio’s success and his fall, which is a brand new information for me. In Rome, Caravaggio developed his realism style and tenebrist lighting technique. Viewer feel the painting and his artwork made illiterate low-life person believes. That was exactly what the church want, which was to educate illiterate person to learn bible stories. However, when he painted the Death of Mary, it was too vivid that Mary was surround by grief and mourn. It didn’t feel like Mary was asleep, it feels like Mary was dead. It shocked the church and also his commissioners. Mary was supposed to be a divine figure and immortal. But Caravaggio’s Saint Mary looks like a human.
From the video Caravaggio, Death of the Virgin, it said: there’s no sense of spiritual rebirth or salvation. We almost feel rigor mortis setting here. (3:17-3:24) It is against the Christianity believe. Thus, he got rejected by church, no one want to commission him for jobs. Gregory mentioned in her article that: Caravaggio is almost always described as a revolutionary innovator- which in many ways he is. But when his work is considered more carefully, the attentive viewer also becomes aware of the depth of his debt to an earlier tradition- One that is as much literary as it is visual. (Gregory 183).
Smarthistory, Caravaggio, Death of the Virgin, Oct 2, 2011I like Caravaggio is because I like his realism artistic style. His painting is so real and so intimating. He challenged the authority in the historical context. For example, in the Death of Mary, he raised questions like: is it really an afterlife? Or Is it really a God who will give us salvation and resurrection. Gregory also mentioned in her article: Caravaggio rejects the polished idealization he found in the paintings of the High Renaissance. He paints all over again the paintings of famous masters such as Leonardo and Raphael. He competes with them, with the intention of surpassing them. He seems to say, let’s actually do it from nature. (Gregory 186) I think Gregory’s article really helped me to better understand Caravaggio’s life in detail.
Work Cited:
Gregory, Sharon. “Caravaggio and Vasari's ‘Lives.’” Artibus Et Historiae, vol. 32, no. 64, 2011, pp. 167–191. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41479760. Accessed 23 Nov. 2020.
Smarthistory. “Caravaggio, Death of the Virgin.” YouTube, 2 Oct. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkH-yjJ35vU.
Comments
Post a Comment