A historical artist I found interesting in the world of art is Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, commonly known as Caravaggio, an Italian artist in the Baroque Era (Ornate Age). Caravaggio was born on September 29, 1571 to his father Fermo Merisi and mother Luci Aratori in Milan, Lombardy. At the age of 11, he was orphaned due to the death of his parents and found work as an apprentice for a painter named Simone Peterzano for four years. During his years under Peterzano, he was influenced by the outside art works of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and other Northern arts. In 1592 at the age of 21, he moved to Rome, Italy the center of where artists gathered to work for less skilled painters. During his time in Rome, Cardinal Francesco del …show more content…
Monte saw his work of art and commissioned him to paint in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi. The paintings consisted of his first major works of three paintings from the life of St. Matthews known as "St. Matthew and the Angel", "The Calling of St. Matthew", and "The Martyrdom of St. Matthew” in the Contarelli Chapel, finished in 1601. Caravaggio’s style of art painting would influence a section of paradigm in art for years after his death. Caraviggio was exceptionally unique in the way he painted his art. Unlike artists before or during his time, he would paint his work directly onto the canvass where other artists would have rough preliminary drawings before painting a piece of art. The style of art Caraviggio was renowned for was his technique in chiaroscuro. In the book Prebles' Artforms by Patrick Frank,”Caravaggio created the most vivid and dramatic paintings of his time, using directed light and strong contrasts to guide the attention of the viewer and intensify the subject matter”. The intense, dramatic contrasts of light and dark, resolute realism, meticulous attention to naturalistic detail and approachable, life-like models set Caravaggio's paintings apart from all the masters that preceded him (artble.com 2015). Most of his arts were based on the church as he secularized religious art paintings of saints as common people with rough models for his saints. The paintings were at first viewed as unacceptable to portray the saints of Church as common people. But with time progressing, the art paintings drew a message to the audience that saints are still common people and common people can relate themselves to. Caravaggio life as an artist was different from most artists as his behavior outside the art was filled with drama. He could be a violent man, with drastic mood swings and a love for drinking and gambling ("Caravaggio." 2015). During his time in Rome, he had many altercations with the law including assaults and imprisonments. His worst offence was on May 29, 1606 when he even killed a young Ranuccio Tomassoni of Terni. He fled to Malta and was pardon but that was not the end of his bad behaviors. As a few years past, he was involved in other altercations leaving him injured and eventually to his ill health dies on July 18, 1610. Arrogant, rebellious and a murderer, Caravaggio's short and tempestuous life matched the drama of his works (nationalgallery.org 2015). Of the art paintings finished by Carvaggio, the painting I personally enjoyed investigating the most was Narcissus. The painting was influenced by Greco-Roman mythology. The story goes as Narcissus was the son of the nymph Leiriope and the river god Cephissus. Along with his mother, they both went to a blind prophet which told him that "If he but fails to recognize himself, a long life he may have, beneath the sun." (artble.com 2015). Soon after, he came across a pool of water and starred into his own reflection as he fell in love with his own beauty. He did not eat or drink and died starring into his own reflection. Narcissus was painted on a canvas using oil as its medium measuring 110 cm in height and 92 cm in length.
The technique Caraviggio used was chiaroscuro as he was mainly known for in his paintings. The reflection of Narcissus in the water I found to be very impressive because of the way the reflection displayed an older version of Narcissus with a darker shading in the water contradicting perfectly with the lighter colors of inland Narcissus. The contrast between Narcissus’s vest is a golden light color with the dark background displaying a great work of shading from light to dark. The eye on the face of inland Narcissus is also darkened with a light facial paint directing my attention to his tiredness, portraying the meaningful self-love gaze of the …show more content…
mythology. The Incredulity of Saint Thomas or Doubting Thomas is the second piece of art painting that attracted my interest.
The painting was done on a canvas using oil as its medium measuring at 107 cm in height and 146 cm in length. The story behind this art was the saint doubts the resurrection of Christ, saying "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." (artble.com 2015). In this painting, I found it to be amazing how Caravaggio is able to use chiaroscuro to draw the attention into the figures of Jesus and Thomas. From the left side of the painting, Jesus is wearing the white robe with light skinned painting leading to the saints with light to darker red on the right side of the painting. To make Thomas stand out from the other two saints in the painting, he is the only saint to have a rip on the shoulder seam with a lighter white color showing out and his fingers poking into Jesus wound. In this painting, I am most astounded by the way he portray the four individual heads to unite into focus on the wound of Jesus drawing the viewers’ attention to the area of
focus.
...is the focal point with the orthogonal of the gestures of the apostles lining up towards it. Masaccio makes good use of chiaroscuro, since his figures have soft, round edges and their bodies are apparent under their drapery. The drapery shows creases and edges which allow for that to happen. Masaccio also employs directed lighting in which the sun comes from the right and all the figures’ shadows are to the left, which is what would happen in real life. Furthermore, Masaccio uses soft, subdued colors, such as green, blue, and pink. The mood of Massacio’s painting is static with all the figures standing in contrapposto with their one knee sticking out and the individuals in Classical and naturalistic proportions. Masaccio placed his scene in the recognizable Arno Valley. Also, Masaccio’s story has no disguised symbolism and rather depicts a straightforward story.
The chosen art work is "Miracle of St. Dominic." This painting is a tempera on panel, painted by the Renaissance artist Taddeo di Bartolo, in the year thirteen sixty three. The painting is currently housed at the McNay Art Museum, measuring approximately 10" high by 10" wide. In this particular painting we are witnessing a miracle by St. Dominical. There are spectators and a horse that lays above the man in red, who St. Dominical has brought back to life.
Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the most famous artists during the time of the Renaissance, The Mona Lisa for example, was a painting created between 1503 and 1506, it is the most famous painting ever painted. It is a portrait of the young wife of a Florentine silk merchant. It shows a young woman with her famous smile sitting on a balcony high above a landscape.
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
‘Martha and Mary Magdalene’ sometimes known as ‘Martha Reproving Mary’ or ‘The Conversion of the Magdalene’ was painted by Caravaggio in 1595 and completed in 1596. The piece was done in oil and tempera on canvas, measuring at 39 and three eights by 53 inches. Art historians believed it to be a copy until the 1970’s. It wasn’t until after, that the DIA purchased this painting in 1974, where it has resided since. This composition is said to be where the artist has fully devel...
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).
Upon first looking at this painting it is apparent that the colors exhibited in the artist's palette deviate from the quintessential Renaissance painting. The flesh tones of the artwork appear pallid and not as the rich realistic flesh tones seen throughout the Met gallery in other High Renaissance paintings. The skin is rendered with a pigment that includes a yellow and green tint. This color is not due to age, but rather a distinct decision by the artist to deviate from a realism of depicting the human body. The flesh tones seen in the angel's bare back, the neck of the Madonna, and in the Christ child exhibit this pallid hue. In the case of the Christ child this appears appropriate considering the scene was before the time of birth approximating a “divine fetus”. However, the flesh tones of the angel and the Madonna do not appear lifelike.
Michelangelo di Ludovico Buonarroti Simoni was a painter, sculptor, architect, and poet. He was born on March 6, 1475 in, Caprese, Italy. He was the 2nd born of five sons. He passed away at the age of 88 years old on February 18th, 1564. He was one of the most famous Italian Renaissance artist. He became an apprentice to a painter before studying sculpture gardens of the power in the Medici family. Michelangelo had several works in his time. His most popular sculptures were “Pieta” and “David” Some of his painting are “Sistine Chapel” and “Last Judgment” The pieta painting had showed the “Virgin Mary holding of her son Jesus after he
1608) and Sicilly (1608-1609). In these places Caravaggio was influenced by the vibrant colors, and
Caravaggio’s work was “largely based on relative naturalism and [the] extensive use of dark shadows, [which] would be seen today as a rather rude characterisation of […] sixteenth-century Venetian painting[s]” (Kieth 1998: 37). “The lit and shadowed areas are very light and very dark and […] in an unnatural fashion neither done or even considered before by such artists as Raphael, Titian, […] or others” (Christiansen 2003). Caravaggio’s unusual techniques have made him a revolutionary painter of the seventeenth-century. “Caravaggio’s influence is credited with luring other artists to follow him in his use of darkened ground and the substitution of the commonplace for more nobly conceived figures in idealized settings” (Mann 1997: 161). Annibale
The unique learning experience and skills Michelangelo cultured in his couple years at the Medici household certainly contributed to his future success. Furthermore “Lorenzo de Medici commissioned the first two works attributed to the young artist, "Madonna of the steps" and 'Battle of the Centaurs', both completed in 1492.” (PBS). Once Lorenzo died, Michelangelo briefly moved back in with Lodovico. At this time, the Medici’s became involved in political turmoil which ended in 1494. The Medici family was expelled from Florence by the newly elected leader Girolamo Savonarola . Michelangelo thought it was best for him to leave the city temporarily because of his connections with the Medici. He had a short-term stay in Venice and Bologna before
“His individual catalogue entries are mostly largely descriptive and interpretative of the content and supposed allegory of the specific drawing and lack much of the basic art-historical material that would seem essential to this reviewer.” In Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino, the techniques show cross-hatching on the dry paint, and brush strokes. His technique in this painting shows fine details, from the ancient monuments to the modern buildings. In The Long Ship’s Lighthouse, Land Ends captures transparent washes in the sky, also scratches that are directly on the paper render the spot of light on the waves.
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.
Amongst the several intellectual and artistic Renaissance individuals, this figure “saw the angle in the marble and carved until he set him free.” Artist Michelangelo Buonarroti learned his art while young and under the occupation of Lorenzo de Magnificent; his talent was pooled in different directions, but he applied himself to traditional religious matters with great devotion, although he had been increasingly attracted to the classical legends he heard at home. Michelangelo was born with talents beyond artistry; he is mostly known as being a painter and sculptor, but Michelangelo was also an architect, poet, and engineer.