Caravaggio - A Life Painted in Chiaroscuro
Above is the drawing of a young man. He was a drinker and a brawler. He had an explosive temper and took to prowling the streets at night with his friends, sword dangling at his side as he went looking for a fight with his enemies, real or imagined. He was a convicted murderer. He was also one of the greatest artists in the history of painting. His name? Caravaggio! Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, to be exact.
He was a man of incredible extremes and contradictions. Caravaggio's life was short, and as violent as his paintings. His lifestyle matched the chiaroscuro his paintings are known for, stark contrasts of light and dark. There are about ninety extant paintings by Caravaggio. Nobody knows exactly how many of his works have gone missing, or been destroyed, but of the many that survive I have been fortunate enough to see some of his best. In New York City, Florence, Rome, and the Vatican, I have enjoyed his awesome talent.
Below is The Denial of St. Peter from 1601. It hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of New York. Excuse the poor photos. Museums and Churches don't take kindly to patrons snapping pictures.
Everyone is different. When some people travel to NYC they want to take in a show on Broadway or have a meal at Batali's Del Posto. Me? I want to hang out in its museums, or stare up at some of it's architectural marvels. We're all different. It's the same with Europe. I have a daughter-in-law that would love to take a cooking class while in Italy. I have a friend that is going to Italy this spring. His ultimate destination? The Ferrari Museum; he's really into cars. But with me, I'm a hopeless art lover and antiquarian.
So if you are planning a trip to Rome, and you are a Caravaggio lover, read on, because there you will find some of Caravaggio's most famous works waiting for you, for free, sans lines and crowds. Below is the 1602 painting of John the Baptist hanging in the Capitoline Museum in Rome. There is an identical version of this painting hanging in the Doria Pamphilj, also in Rome. There has been some dispute as to which is the real Caravaggio, or are they both by his hand? I have seen both. I'll leave the provenance of the paintings to the experts.
Below is the Madonna of Loreto painted in 1604. It hangs in its original location, in Basilica of Sant'Agostino, Rome. It's a Church, so you just walk in and there it is.
And not very far from the Madonna of Loreto is a Chuch called San Luigi dei Francesi. Here you will find three magnificent Caravaggio's, all done in 1599-1600. They are, The Calling of.., The Inspiration of.., and the Martyrdom of.. St Matthew. You can see them below as they appear, left to right, exactly where they have been viewed for 418 years.
At the north end of the Via del Corso in Rome is Santa Maria del Popolo. Inside this Church you will find two masterpieces by Caravaggio; the Conversion of Saint Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter. For the sake of brevity I will spare you the amateurish photos I took of these two paintings. It is better you see them for yourself. The drama and lighting is incredible in both.
Below is a painting titled Entombment. Created for Santa Maria in Vallicella in 1603. Today it can be seen in the Pinacoteca of the Vatican Museums. This is one of my favorites. The elbow of the man holding Christ's legs appears to be coming out of the painting as he looks back at the viewer. The corner of the stone slab they stand on, also appears 3-dimensional.
Caravaggio died in 1610 at the age of 38. After years of exile for a murder he committed in Rome he was making his way back there to plead for a pardon from the Pope. He died in Porto Ercole en route back to the Eternal City.
I highly recommend two books to anyone interested in knowing more about Caravaggio.
Andrew Graham Dixon's - Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane - and Jonathan Harr's - The Lost Painting.
You never know where you will find a Caravaggio in your travels. In the United States, New York, Detroit, Kansas City, and Ft. Worth, all have a Caravaggio on exhibit.
The following link is a great aid in studying Caravaggio. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_works_by_Caravaggio
Am I the only one thinking as if it's only erratic men that have the luck of being bestowed with many talents. Hope am not alone?
No, I think you’re on to something. The extremely gifted do seem to have a disproportianate amount of erratic behavior, as you call it, to match their disproportionate amount of genius and talent. Just look at the lives of our modern overachievers, so many times they end tragically.
Great paintings. Amazing light.
I am probably a bit selfish here, but this is where I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on the artist, since museums and galleries tend to only provide a glimpse into the artist and their artworks, so it is hard to appreciate the full extent of their talent, especially if you are someone like me who is strong in neither art or history.
Incidentally, I was working with the company who had set up this particular exhibition (helping with translation and proofreading) that ended up in the news for the wrong reasons. I did learn a little bit about the artists during the project, and the difficulty of working in the art industry:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/25/boy-trips-in-museum-and-punches-hole-through-million-dollar-painting
Well, I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't :) I would love to go into more detail about Caravaggio but I have been alerted to the short attention spans of the smartphone demographic. I left the link to the artists works and a couple of book recommendations for the person whose curiosity was piqued by these photos.
My intent was to make people aware that when they travel there are hidden treasures everywhere. Who would think that a Baroque master of Caravaggio's caliber is represented in a museum in Kansas City? Dublin, Ireland, has The Taking of the Christ on display, thought lost for many years but rediscovered recently. The book I recommended, The Lost Painting, recounts how that amazing painting was found. But if you want to get to know Caravaggio, his world, and his paintings, pick up Caravaggio: the Sacred and the Profane. It is a better format than Steemit for an in depth exploration of a genius.
I should like to write about how to plan a trip for art lovers. With the Internet we can locate all of the places and things we want to see in a city like Rome, before we get there, and pin the sites on google maps. Then each days itinerary is simple to plan. The Churches I mentioned in this article are all within walking distance of each other, albeit a person accustomed to walking in a big city. I confess to using a taxi when in a hurry.
I clicked on the link. These stories aggravate me to no end. I envoy the freedom of being able to get up close and personal in museums. But the tendency is to put up barricades between the public and the artworks because of a few careless people. I dread the day when fine art is behind bulletproof glass. In many places it already is.
Fair enough... I did notice a lot of people using the TLDR label in their post for the mobile generation, but write more for the desktop generation that still like to read a book every now and then :)
You might be interested in @steemitworldmap and what they are doing at the moment if you are thinking of writing about how to plan a trip for art lovers. I actually have some relatives in Italy that work in a lot of the museums and galleries (hence the previous story about the exhibition).
I have put a couple of my posts on the world map already; a photograph from Florence and a bridge in Rome. It’s a great idea and fun to use too. My wife and I both have relatives in Italy but when we visited her family’s place of origin, Lucca, we didn’t look them up. When you visit Italy it will be great to connect with your relatives.