Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, usually known as Caravaggio, was born on September 29, 1571 in Milan Italy. Caravaggio is often referred to as the “Bad Boy of Baroque” due to his fiery temper, violent behavior and not so pleasant encounters with the law. He studied still life painting, and was apprenticed in Milan, to a master who had actually trained under Titian, a painter who was a part of the 16th century Venetian School.
Sometime around 1590, Caravaggio moved to Rome where he shifted his focus from still life to young boys and life on the streets. There are a few key defining characteristics of Caravaggio’s work; he was known for his ability to realistically capture moments of strong and sometimes violent human emotions, and his use of chiaroscuro, a dramatic use of shadow and lighting, created a pronounced 3D effect. Chiaroscuro later became known as Tenebrism. He worked at a great speed from live models and since very few of his drawings appear to have survived, it is very likely that he preferred to work directly on the canvas.
Most of his paintings are Biblical scenes, with many identifiable people from Caravaggio’s time in the paintings. The scenes that he depicted were more often than not, violent and gruesome events from the Bible, which was very different from the whimsical and idealized scenes painted in his time. Caravaggio’s work rivaled that of Michelangelo’s, although their styles were considerably different. Michelangelo painted idealized bodies (think very muscular), Caravaggio pioneered realism, which is “painting what you see”, and has in turn influenced many other artists along the ages, such as Jusepe de Ribera, Rembrandt, and Bernini.
Most of his paintings are Biblical scenes, with many identifiable people from Caravaggio’s time in the paintings. The scenes that he depicted were more often than not, violent and gruesome events from the Bible, which was very different from the whimsical and idealized scenes painted in his time. Caravaggio’s work rivaled that of Michelangelo’s, although their styles were considerably different. Michelangelo painted idealized bodies (think very muscular), Caravaggio pioneered realism, which is “painting what you see”, and has in turn influenced many other artists along the ages, such as Jusepe de Ribera, Rembrandt, and Bernini.
Defining the Baroque period is an extremely difficult thing to do, because you can’t really say that Baroque is defined by a specific painting or artist that lived in this time period. Despite this all, I think that every art movement must have a source, a point of origin. The origins of Baroque can be traced to Caravaggio, who learned much from the Carracci family, but came up with other ideas of his own.
It can be said of Caravaggio that he almost single-handedly created the Baroque art style, because he set aside all the ‘rules’ of painting at the time, and painted what he saw, instead of some over-the top idealized painting depicting religion or humans. Of some of the key characteristics of Baroque, movement, chiaroscuro (or tenebrism), and emotion, all of which I see Caravaggio having played a huge part of shaping these key elements, and even redefining them for his time. All of his work is a great example of tenebrism, the drastic change of light to dark, creating strong, emotive, and upon occasion violent depictions of street life, or more commonly, Biblical scenes.
It can be said of Caravaggio that he almost single-handedly created the Baroque art style, because he set aside all the ‘rules’ of painting at the time, and painted what he saw, instead of some over-the top idealized painting depicting religion or humans. Of some of the key characteristics of Baroque, movement, chiaroscuro (or tenebrism), and emotion, all of which I see Caravaggio having played a huge part of shaping these key elements, and even redefining them for his time. All of his work is a great example of tenebrism, the drastic change of light to dark, creating strong, emotive, and upon occasion violent depictions of street life, or more commonly, Biblical scenes.
Considering the fact that Caravaggio greatly shaped Baroque art, I think it’s safe to say that he influenced many of the artists that came in the following years of the Baroque period. Artists such as Rembrandt, continued to apply the techniques used by Caravaggio, such as chiaroscuro and realism, into their own work. If Caravaggio had not lived and started the Baroque period, I’m not sure what our paintings would be like today. Would we continue to paint idealized human forms and religious scenes? Perhaps we wouldn’t have had so many art movements, experimenting with emotion and different ways of depicting scenes realistically. The art world would definitely be different, if not completely altered.
I have quite a few paintings that I enjoy of Caravaggio’s, but it’s so difficult to choose because they all have such a dramatic use of dark and light. They really do leave quite an impression on the viewer, which is one of the things I like most about his work; it’s so strong, and stirs up a lot of emotions.
Hopefully at one point in my life, I’ll be able to convey strong feelings through my own work, just like Caravaggio!
Hopefully at one point in my life, I’ll be able to convey strong feelings through my own work, just like Caravaggio!
1. I like this painting because he defined soliloquy, ( talking to oneself) in painting. He did what Shakespeare did with his plays, except in the form of pictures.
2. I LOVE the dramatic shadows. 'nuff said. :)
3. I think that this painting is a really good example of his usual violent paintings. This is rather gruesome, but very striking.
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