Italian Baroque Art Analysis

Italian Baroque was a period through the late sixteenth century to the mid eighteenth century that included motion in paintings that created drama and tension. One of the most influential artists of Italian Baroque was known as Michelangelo Marisi da Caravaggio, most known as simply Caravaggio. Caravaggio went against the norm of popular baroque art, which before the time focused more on the religious experience in a painting. Instead, Caravaggio mostly focused on the realism of the specific scene of the paintings. His style of Baroque painting influenced many artists during the baroque period but also modern artists. Caravaggio used very dramatic uses of lighting and was very talented when it came to capturing physical aspects of his subjects as well as emotional well-beings.

In Caravaggio’s most famous painting The Calling of Saint Matthew shows the moment that Jesus Christ calls upon Saint Matthew and inspires him to follow him. In most religious paintings, Jesus is glowing. Even if Jesus is not depicted in the middle of the painting, your focus leads to Jesus.

Caravaggio’s technique is very different. In The Calling of Saint Matthew, Jesus is shown in the corner in what is believed to be the darkest part of the painting. At first glance, you are incapable of knowing if that is Jesus but his halo proves to be so. Instead of your attention going to Jesus, we are focused on Saint Matthew. Saint Matthew was a Jewish tax collector, also known as Levi the toll collector. The artist's use of light and shadow adds drama to this image as well as giving the figures a quality of immediacy. Most of the people in the painting are depicted in shadow and the beaming light highlights Saint Matthew.
Caravaggio does an impeccable job in The Calling of Saint Matthew to show emotion.

You can see Jesus pointing directly at Saint Matthew as if he’s saying, “You. Come with me.” And Matthew has an expression of confusion and is pointing to someone at his side. His face shows a narrative of of “Who? Him?” Based on the lighting we can very clearly tell that Jesus is calling upon Saint Matthew. Caravaggio depicts an interruption. The painting is physically in motion. If sitting in the scene, everyone would be very fluid and moving around and Jesus comes calling on Saint Matthew and everyone is in a freeze-frame. Jesus catches Saint Matthew off-guard while he was focusing on his four companions. He looks up as Jesus, his face illuminated but his body otherwise in shadow, extends his right arm in an action. In front of Jesus, slightly bending over and turning away from us, Peter repeats the

gesture.
Most artists come up with a rough sketch or drawing on the canvas before applying paint to the canvas. Understandable because once you paint on a canvas, it is very hard to remove the paint without having any visual discoloration. Caravaggio was different though as he did not execute drawings before starting to paint. Instead, Caravaggio would indent into the canvas with the handle of his brush and then go in and paint the rest. This small detail that Caravaggio did differently has become very influential because afterwards many artists would free-hand their paintings. He was criticized for using a less sophisticated technique but his ability to depict emotion and physical motion without having a sketch shows how truly talented Caravaggio really is.

After Caravaggio’s death due to a fever in the early 1600s, he was almost immediately forgotten but through his unique techniques of creating emotions and unique use of lighting he was reborn in the 20th century and his influential impact than be seen at different sites around the world to this day. Caravaggio’s The Calling of Saint Matthew can be found in San Luigi dei Francesi in Italy as well as other influential paintings by Caravaggio.