Caravaggio: Realism and Dynamism in Religious Art
Caravaggio’s Unique Artistic Approach
David is represented almost like a child, and this is represented as a vulgar person. He is natural, and is presented with black nails, dirty clothes, etc., mixing reality with unreality. Blend refusing titrations; watch this space.
Supper at Emmaus (Titian and Caravaggio)
We have a static address to the movement; Titian idealized realism as if they were wealthy, with silk dresses, and behind a richly dressed servant, rather than a landlord. The composition of Titian’s is an influence of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, highlighting the static, equilibrium, while Caravaggio’s figures are extremely dynamic.
The background is a landscape by Titian because of the obsession of the Renaissance Fund, which he declared in his Caravaggio.
The Titian is frontal, but in Caravaggio, despite being in the foreground, there is no frontal; it still uses the action of putting the viewer in the scene, achieved through the action of placing one of the apostles back. The right character, Santiago, with the pilgrim’s staff, has made thanks to the expression impressed to know Christ (raising hands) extending a diagonal in the arms that lead the viewer to Christ. In addition, it reverses the action. The figure does not make us back into the scene, who makes us fully immersed and reach Santiago Christ with outstretched arms. It is a very dynamic composition: we move from Santiago to Christ and Christ figure back.
Still lifes remain, in this case, see the basket that is off the table, making the figure of the basket and passed back to our own space. Each figure, each apostle, are personal to the street, rough, dirty shirt, and even with dirt on their faces, and, with them, the figure of any innkeeper at the time. They are actually very close to his characters in his life.
Christ is depicted as a beardless Jesus; he is a character that is not beautiful, it is an idealized figure and long, get a little face filled with colored cheeks.
We lose the white skins of the figures. Her gown (the Christ) is red. It is the newly resurrected; is the robe of death. When Jesus blesses the table is when the apostles realize that what they were seeing was not a hallucination but a resurrection.
Contarelli Chapel (St. Louis of the French)
Saint Matthew and the Angel (The second, the first in the photocopies.)
The composition is made from top to bottom, as would be seen from below. The mantle, leg, arm, head, and the Angel take us out of the box to take the vault. Where is that heaven which receives Matthew? It is an old man with gentleness, goodness, no sanctity in the face. The beard seems impressionistic made brush strokes and capturing the light of realistic, no such rigid Renaissance beards.
Cesari Chapel (Santa Maria del Popolo) 1601-1602
It started, as in the Contarelli Chapel, with big sets. Now we start with the Cesari Chapel; the commission again be private, like almost everyone who begins to take at this time to Caravaggio.
Cesario Tiberius, who commissioned them, now have a picture of brightly colored Carracci, unfit for what he was doing at that time Caravaggio. And it will be like the opponent of Caravaggio; light will have a tendency of classical tradition, as opposed to tenebrism Cravaggio. In a way, this condition to Caravaggio, but always faithful to his own style.
Cesari Tiberius died in 1601. Caravaggio had done a version of the requested tables, which were then rejected by the executors of Cesari. It is something that is not documented, but precisely the dates and the trend.