Caravaggio’s Death of the Virgin: Analysis
Death of the Virgin by Caravaggio
Chronological Placement, History, and Culture
This work can be dated from the year 1605 to 1606.
Stylistic Affiliation
It belongs to the Italian Baroque style.
Formal and Conceptual Characteristics
- Technique: Oil painting
- Support: Canvas
- Style: Openly pictorial, with color dominating the picture.
- Composition: Complex, featuring curves and diagonal lines in various directions, including stripes. It is asymmetric and atectonic.
- Compositional Geometry: No geometric composition.
- Perspective: The artist uses linear perspective, but aerial perspective prevails. Colors contribute to the sense of depth.
- Lines: Predominance of curved lines and diagonals.
- Lighting: There is light at the bottom and dark foregrounds. The scene is partially illuminated by a specific focus, leaving part of it in darkness—a technique typical of Caravaggio called tenebrism.
- Chromaticism: Warm colors are used in the foreground and cold colors in the background. The palette is colorful, mostly ochres. Certain color ranges are used for light, and color attributes contribute to depth.
- Expression: Figurative and naturalist, not hiding the unpleasant aspects of reality.
- Rhythm: Fictional, both internally (in the expressiveness of the characters) and externally (in the movement of curtains).
- Canon: Represents people.
Subject Matter, Literary Canon, Meaning, and Function
Subject: The painting depicts the scene immediately after the death of the Virgin Mary, with Mary Magdalene and the apostles grieving around her. The painter conveys a human side to the drama through the expression of pain. Magdalene, devastated, sobs, hiding her face in her hands; the apostles show signs of pain similar to that of any human being who has lost someone dear.
Literary Model: The Bible.
Meaning: This is a religious painting, depicting a recurring theme among painters of the time: the death of the Virgin. Caravaggio expresses deep religious feeling, stripped of conventionalisms. At a primary level of significance, it represents the death of Mary in the company of the apostles, with the symbolic presence of her son through the use of light. On a secondary level, the depiction suggests that religion is relevant to everyday people and that anyone could follow the Christian faith.
Function:
- The painting was commissioned for the church of Santa Maria della Scala in Rome. At that time, paintings were conceived as a means of dissemination, intended to stimulate religious sentiment. It was expected to conform to classical ideals of beauty to more effectively fulfill its persuasive role.
- To represent religious and spiritual principles.
- To stimulate religious sentiment at a social level.
Iconography
The painter humanizes the drama through the expression of pain. Mary Magdalene, devastated, sobs with her face in her hands. The apostles display signs of pain similar to those of anyone who has lost a loved one. In the painting, we can easily identify the body of the Virgin, Mary Magdalene sitting and crying inconsolably, and St. John the Evangelist, standing pensively behind the Virgin. The rest of the apostles, some nearby and others in the background, complete the group. Two objects mark the limits of the scene: a copper pot in the foreground and an elegant curtain in the background.