Caravaggio, Death of St. Matthew
Michelangelo de Caravaggio is one of the most renowned and popular artists of the Baroque Period. In fact, many paintings from this period, as well as after have been described as “Caravagesque.” Caravaggio’s works are some of the most popular in Italy, as well as around the world, and have been put into there own stylistic group. In his painting, the Martyrdom of St. Matthew, there contains certain characteristics that make the painting easily recognizable to a connoisseur of fine paintings. This paper will discuss some background of this artist’s life, the content of the work, some ideas that it portrays and contains, and a visual description of the painting.
Michelangelo Amerigi, known in the art world as Caravaggio, was born in Caravaggio, in Lombardy, Italy. He was born into a somewhat successful family, in which his father worked as a mason. Growing up in Lombardy was not the most superlative place for a young artist. Luckily for him, Milan, Italy was nearby, and he took up studying art there. Shortly after that he moved to Rome, which was the center of the art world at the time, and began what was a most masterful career. Many of Caravaggio's paintings reflected his personality and character. As a young boy up until he was an old man, Caravaggio had a terrible temper, and was not afraid of confrontation or death. Many times it seemed as though he went out looking for a confrontation. In one instance, over a difference in a game of ball, he challenged another young man to a fight in which resulted in Caravaggio killing him with his sword. This was not the only confrontation though; there are several more documented throughout his life, in several different courts. Caravaggio’s attitude and character allowed himself to express some of the darker and naturally gruesome scenes of religion, mythology, and history. Unlike anyone else, his paintings captured an audience with his use of natural looking figures, dramatic situations, and with a powerful sense of immediacy.
Caravaggio’s Death of St. Matthew is a painting in which his characteristics are represented very clearly. Many of Caravaggio’s works were those of religious scenes that were stories from the Bible and other scriptural readings. Matthews’s death resulted from his public disapproval of the King of Ethiopia having a sexual inte...
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.... For these reasons, Caravaggio painted over his previous work, and we are left with the current masterpiece of today. His use of realism, dark shades, and mysterious light sources were perfect for what the Church wanted at this time.
Bibliography
1. Camiz, Franca Trinchieri, Death and Rebirth in Caravaggio’s Martyrdom of St. Matthew, Artibus et Historiae, 1990, no. 22, p. 89-105. (BHA, 1992 #2264)
2. Croppel, E., The Petrifying Art: Marino’s Poetry and Caravaggio, Metropolitan Museum Journal, 1991, vol. 26, p. 193-212. (Art Index)
3. Friedlaender, Walter F., Caravaggio Studies, New York: Schocken Books, 1969. (reserve desk)
4. Hass, Angela, Caravaggio’s Calling of St. Matthew reconsidered, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 1988, vol. 51, p. 245-50. (First Search)
5. Hibbard, H., Caravaggio, New York: Harpe and Kow, 1983. (reserve desk)
6. Hibbard, H., Caravaggio’s Two St. Matthews, Romiches Jahrbuch fair Kunstgeschichte, 1983, vol. 20, p. 181-91. (Art Index)
7. Puttfarken, Thomas, Caravaggio’s ‘Story of St. Matthew’: a challenge to the conventions of painting, Art History, June 1998, vol. 21 no. 22, p. 163-81. (First Search)
Gregorio Dati, Diary, in Gene Brucker (ed), Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence (Waveland Press, 1991) p. 107
The tendencies of Baroque translated differently in parts of Europe. In Italy, it reflected the return of intense piety through dense church ornamentations, complex architecture, and dynamic painting. Calabrese’s work exhibits the combined artistic stimuli of the 17th century and culminates in the acquired Caravagesque style that alters how paintings were composed from then on. Executed at the height of Calabrese’s most creative phase, St. John the Baptist Preaching is indicates the monumentality of change in urbanization as well as the return of Catholic permanence in the 1600’s. Aside from the Baroque power of the artwork, Calabrese’s St. John is a piece worth gravitating to and stands as reminder of the grandiose excesses of Baroque art.
In the two different depictions of the scene Betrayal of Christ, Duccio and Giotto show their different styles on how they compose their paintings. The first decision into the composure of the painting would be the comparison of the size of surface they chose to paint on. Duccio in comparison to Giotto chooses to work on a wooden panel no wider than a foot, and Giotto went with a plaster surface with a width of ten feet. This detail alone lets the viewer know that Giotto’s artwork is embedded in detail and visual consumption. The size difference is the factor between who see’s it and what they see; the fine details and symbolism of the narrative will be better understood if the viewer can see every detail.
By most accounts, the year 1500 was in the midst of the height of the Italian Renaissance. In that year, Flemmish artist Jean Hey, known as the “Master of Moulins,” painted “The Annunciation” to adorn a section of an alter piece for his royal French patrons. The painting tells the story of the angel Gabriel’s visit to the Virgin Mary to deliver the news that she will give birth to the son of God. As the story goes, Mary, an unwed woman, was initially terrified about the prospects of pregnancy, but eventually accepts her fate as God’s servant. “The Annunciation” is an oil painting on a modest canvas, three feet tall and half as wide. The setting of the painting is a study, Mary sitting at a desk in the bottom right hand corner reading, and the angel Gabriel behind her holding a golden scepter, perhaps floating and slightly off the canvas’s center to the left. Both figures are making distinct hand gestures, and a single white dove, in a glowing sphere of gold, floats directly above Mary’s head. The rest of the study is artistic but uncluttered: a tiled floor, a bed with red sheets, and Italian-style architecture. “The Annunciation” was painted at a momentous time, at what is now considered the end of the Early Renaissance (the majority of the 15th Century) and the beginning of the High Renaissance (roughly, 1495 – 1520). Because of its appropriate placement in the Renaissance’s timeline and its distinctly High Renaissance characteristics, Jean Hey’s “Annunciation” represents the culmination of the transition from the trial-and-error process of the Early Renaissance, to the technical perfection that embodied the High Renaissance. Specifically, “Annunciation” demonstrates technical advancements in the portrayal of the huma...
The artists of the Baroque had a remarkably different style than artists of the Renaissance due to their different approach to form, space, and composition. This extreme differentiation in style resulted in a very different treatment of narrative. Perhaps this drastic stylistic difference between the Renaissance and Baroque in their treatment of form, space, and composition and how these characteristics effect the narrative of a painting cannot be seen more than in comparing Perugino’s Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter from the Early Renaissance to Caravaggio’s Conversion of St. Paul from the Baroque.Perugino was one of the greatest masters of the Early Renaissance whose style ischaracterized by the Renaissance ideals of purity, simplicity, and exceptional symmetry of composition. His approach to form in Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St.Peter was very linear. He outlined all the figures with a black line giving them a sense of stability, permanence, and power in their environment, but restricting the figures’ sense of movement. In fact, the figures seem to not move at all, but rather are merely locked at a specific moment in time by their rigid outline. Perugino’s approach to the figures’themselves is extremely humanistic and classical. He shines light on the figures in a clear, even way, keeping with the rational and uncluttered meaning of the work. His figures are all locked in a contrapposto pose engaging in intellectual conversation with their neighbor, giving a strong sense of classical rationality. The figures are repeated over and over such as this to convey a rational response and to show the viewer clarity. Perugino’s approach to space was also very rational and simple. He organizes space along three simple planes: foreground, middle ground, and background. Christ and Saint Peter occupy the center foreground and solemn choruses of saints and citizens occupy the rest of the foreground. The middle distance is filled with miscellaneous figures, which complement the front group, emphasizing its density and order, by their scattered arrangement. Buildings from the Renaissance and triumphal arches from Roman antiquity occupy the background, reinforcing the overall classical message to the
Howard Hibbard's Caravaggio is an insightful look into the troubled mind and life of one of the most discussed artists of all time, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Hibbard immediately expands on his belief that Caravaggio is the most important "Italian painter of the entire seventeenth century." Furthermore, his paintings "speak to us more personally and more poignantly than any others of the time." Caravaggio is an artist whose life was far different from all other contemporary artists of his time, or any time. Unlike Annibale Carracci, Caravaggio's works were able to express many of his own feelings and emotions. As Hibbard says, Caravaggio was an artist who "somehow cut through the artistic conventions of his time right down to the universal blood and bone of life." Simply put, Caravaggio was the only Italian painter who was able to utilize his own emotion as his guide instead of the historical artistic tradition. This observation by Hibbard feels somewhat misleading. Clearly, the emotion of Caravaggio's works came out in full explosiveness throughout his years of painting. However, his lifestyle was so troubling that it seems to me that it would have been virtually impossible for him to prevent his life from entering his works. While it should be recognized that Caravaggio's emotion and difficult life is reflected in many of his paintings, it should also be noted that this may have been unintentional and only a side effect of his life. Here is a many who frequently got into trouble with law and killed at least one man in his lifetime. He was arrested almost countless times. Therefore, it seems unfair to me for Hibbard to describe Caravaggio as an ...
... to measure governmental performance around the world in meeting the needs of working families. To complete the index, data was gathered from 177 countries that represent a wide range of political, social and economic systems. Their findings revealed that 137 countries mandate paid annual leave, including 121 countries that guarantee 2 weeks or more each year. In contrast, the United States does not require employers to provide paid annual leave. In addition, at least 145 countries provide paid sick days for short- or long-term illnesses, with 136 providing a week or more annually. More than 81 countries provide sickness benefits for at least 26 weeks or until recovery. The US provides only unpaid leave for serious illnesses through the FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act 0f 1993), which does not cover all workers. More information on this can be found in appendix.
Giordani, Igino. Catherine of Siena: Fire and Blood . Trans. Thomas J. Tobin. Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1959.
This opportunity was one that Caravaggio could not pass up due to his current homelessness and the future of his art. In 1597, Caravaggio was offered to decorate the Contarelli Chapel in the Church of San Luigi Dei Francesi in Rome, Italy (Michelangelo Caravaggio). While he found himself to be 26 years old at the time, Caravaggio took on the task to produce theres large paintings that depicted scenes from St. Matthew’s life. From this opportunity, he painted “St. Matthew and the Angel,” “The Calling of St. Matthew” and “The Martyrdom of St. Matthew” (Michelangelo
Caravaggio’s painting is unique due to its wonderful use of chiaroscuro, which is the contrast between light and dark. For example, the painting “Supper at Emmaus (1602)” illustrates Jesus and his disciples in bright colors and uses a dark tint for the background (Miller, Vandome, & McBrewster, 2010).
Miller, Claire Cain. “The Economic Benefits of Paid Parental Leave.” The New York Times. 30 January 2015.
Much of the art created during the Renaissance was geared toward religion, and with Michelangelo this was no exception. By th...
... the way that the artwork is resembled in the religious background of the gospel but reconstructed in to a celebrating impression. Throughout the fresco painting it depicts the myth of the Christ’s three fold temptations relating back to the article that “distinction between fresco and panel painting is sharp, and that painters are seen as competitors amongst themselves discriminating also, between the difference in genuine attempts in being better then the other.” Baxandall, “Conditions of Trade,” 26. in relation, the painting concerns the painter’s conscious response to picture trade, and the non-isolation in pictorial interests.
Capitalism was still prevalent which allowed for patrons to build even larger art collections. This allowed for Caravaggio to be even more selective with his subject matter and style. In the Caravaggio, Calling of St. Matthew, Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, Oil on Canvas, c. 1599-1600 the painting was not lit uniformly but in patches. The paintings details were struck by bright and intense light alternating with areas of dark shadows. The figures were disheveled and plain. There were figures counting money that ignored the presence of Jesus in the room. A far cry from the idolization of Christ in most High Renaissance paintings. Caravaggio proved to be master of oil paints similar to Jan van Eyck minute
Larmann, R., & Shields, M. (2011). Art of Renaissance and Baroque Europe (1400–1750). Gateways to Art (pp. 376-97). New York: W.W. Norton.