The detailed treatment of the five figures around the tax
collector's table holds the viewer's attention: the flashy
style of the youths' clothes and the opulent garments of the
older men: the hands on the coins: and the various
complexions and hair, which differ according to age. The
greed of the two figures on the left is conveyed by their
failure to participate in — or even notice- the event that
unfolds so close lo them. Yet all this detail, and the
extraordinary skill with which it is depicted, does not
detract from the cohesion and vigour of the whole picture -
nor from its significance.
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The Calling of Saint Matthew (detail)
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The Calling of Saint Matthew (detail)
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The Calling of Saint Matthew (detail)
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Caravaggio, a notoriously violent and rebellions man, lived
at a time when tragic social and religions conflicts, new
ideologies, and economic and political upheavals were
changing the face of Europe. More uncompromising than almost
any other artist, his fervent, radical approach to religion
made him hostile to the hierarchy and officialdom of the
Roman Catholic Church. Here, the religious message is
ambiguous. God's grace falls upon a sinner, Matthew, and the
redeeming gesture of Jesus is repeated, in a lower key, by
Peter father of the Roman Church. The viewer may infer from
this that he or she, too, may be called by God at any time.
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The Calling of Saint Matthew (detail)
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see collection:
Caravaggio
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Caravaggio
(Encyclopaedia Britannica)
by name of Michelangelo Merisi Italian painter whose revolutionary
technique of tenebrism, or dramatic, selective illumination of form
out of deep shadow, became a hallmark of Baroque painting. Scorning
the traditional idealized interpretation of religious subjects, he
took his models from the streets and painted them realistically. His
three paintings of St. Matthew (c. 1597–1602) caused a sensation and
were followed by such masterpieces as The Supper at Emmaus (1596–98)
and Death of the Virgin (1601–03).
Early life
Caravaggio was the son of Fermo Merisi, steward and architect of the
marquis of Caravaggio. Orphaned at age 11, Caravaggio was
apprenticed in the same year to the painter Simone Peterzano of
Milan. At some time between 1588 and 1592, Caravaggio went to Rome.
He was already in possession of the fundamental technical skills of
painting and had acquired, with characteristic eagerness, a thorough
understanding of the approach of the Lombard and Venetian painters,
who, opposed to idealized Florentine painting, had developed a style
that was nearer to representing nature and events. Caravaggio
arrived in Rome and settled into the cosmopolitan society of the
Campo Marzio. This decaying neighbourhood of inns, eating houses,
temporary shelter, and little picture shops in which Caravaggio came
to live suited his circumstances and his temperament. He was
virtually without means, and his inclinations were always toward
anarchy and against tradition.
These first five years were an anguishing period of instability and
humiliation. According to his biographers, Caravaggio was “needy and
stripped of everything” and moved from one unsatisfactory employment
to another, working as an assistant to painters of much smaller
talent. He earned his living for the most part with hackwork and
never stayed more than a few months at any studio. Finally, probably
in 1595, he decided to set out on his own and beganto sell his
pictures through a dealer, a certain Maestro Valentino, who brought
Caravaggio's work to the attention of Cardinal Francesco del Monte,
a prelate of great influence in the papal court. Caravaggio soon
came under the protection of del Monte and was invited to receive
board, lodging, and a pension in the house of the cardinal.
Despite spiritual and material deprivations, Caravaggio had painted
up to the beginning of del Monte's patronage about 40 works. The
subjects of this period are mostly adolescent boys, as in Boy with a
Fruit Basket (1593), The Young Bacchus (1593), and The Music Party.
These early pictures reveal a fresh, direct, and empirical approach;
they were apparently painted directly from life and show almost no
trace of the academic Mannerism then prevailing in Rome. The
felicitous tone and confident craftsmanship of these early works
stand in sharp contrast to the daily quality of Caravaggio's
disorderly and dissipated life. In Basket of Fruit (1596) the
fruits, painted with brilliance and vivid realism, are handsomely
disposed in a straw basket and forma striking composition in their
visual apposition.
Major Roman commissions
With these works realism won its battle with Mannerism, but it is in
the cycle of the life of St. Matthew in the Contarelli Chapel that
Caravaggio's realistic naturalism first fully appears. Probably
through the agency of del Monte, Caravaggio obtained, in 1597, the
commission for the decoration of the Contarelli Chapel in the Church
of San Luigidei Francesi in Rome. This commission established him,
at age 24, as a pictor celeberrimus, a “renowned painter,” with
important protectors and clients. The task was an imposing one. The
scheme called for three large paintings of scenes from the saint's
life: St. Matthew and the Angel, The Calling of St. Matthew, and The
Martyrdom of St. Matthew. The execution (1598–1601) of all three, in
which Caravaggio substituted a dramatic contemporary realism for the
traditional pictorial formulas used in depicting saints, provoked
public astonishment. Perhaps Caravaggio was waiting for this test,
on public view at last, to reveal the whole range of his diversity.
His novelty in these works not only involves the surface appearance
of structure and subject but also the sense of light and even of
time. The first version of the canvas that was to go over the altar,
St. Matthew and the Angel, was so offensive to the canons of San
Luigi dei Francesi, who had never seen such a representation of a
saint, that it had to be redone. In this work the evangelist has the
physical features of a plowman or a common labourer. His big feet
seem to stick out of the picture, and his posture, legs crossed, is
awkward almost to the point of vulgarity. The angel does not stand
graciously by but forcefully pushes Matthew's hand over the page of
a heavy book, as if he were guiding an illiterate. What the canons
did not understand was that Caravaggio, in elevating this humble
figure, was copying Christ, who had himself raised Matthew from the
street.
The other two scenes of the St. Matthew cycle are no less
disconcerting in the realism of their drama. The Calling of St.
Matthew shows the moment at which two men and two worlds confront
each other: Christ, in a burst of light, entering the room of the
toll collector, and Matthew, intent on counting coins in the midst
of a group of gaily dressed idlers with swords at their sides. In
the glance between the two men, Matthew's world is dissolved. In The
Martyrdom of St. Matthew the event is captured just at the moment
when the executioner is forcing his victim to the ground. The scene
is a public street, and, as Matthew's acolyte flees in terror,
passersby glance at the act with idle unconcern. The most intriguing
aspect of these narratives is that they seem as if they were being
performed in thick darkness when a sudden illumination revealed them
and fixed them in memory at the instant of their most intense drama.
Caravaggio's three paintings for the Contarelli Chapel not only
caused a sensation in Rome but also marked a radical change in his
artistic preoccupation. Henceforth he would devote himself almost
entirely to the painting of traditional religious themes, to which,
however, he gave a whole new iconography and interpretation. He
often chose subjects that are susceptible to a dramatic, violent, or
macabre emphasis, and he proceeded to divest them of their idealized
associations, taking his models from the streets. Caravaggio may
have used a lantern hung to one side in his shuttered studio while
painting from his models. The result in his paintings is a harsh,
raking light that strikes across the composition, illuminating parts
of it while plunging the rest into deep shadow. This dramatic
illumination heightens the emotional tension, focuses the details,
and isolates the figures, which are usually placed in the foreground
of the picture in a deliberately casual grouping. This insistence on
clarity and concentration, together with the firm and vigorous
drawing of the figures, links Caravaggio's mature Roman works with
the classical tradition of Italian painting during the Renaissance.
The decoration of the Contarelli Chapel was completed by 1602.
Caravaggio, though not yet 30, overshadowed all his contemporaries.
There was a swarm of orders for his pictures, private and
ecclesiastical. The Crucifixion of St. Peter (1601) and The
Conversion of St. Paul (both in Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome), The
Deposition of Christ (1602–04; see photograph), and the Death of the
Virgin (1601–03) are among the monumental works he produced at this
time. Some of these paintings, done at the high point of
Caravaggio's artistic maturity, provokedviolent reaction. The
Madonna with Pilgrims, or Madonna di Loreto (1603–06), for the
Church of San Agostino, was a scandal because of the “dirty feet and
torn, filthy cap” of the two old people kneeling in the foreground.
The Death of the Virgin was refused by the Carmelites because of the
indignity of the Virgin's plebeian features, bared legs, and swollen
belly. At the advice of the painter Peter Paul Rubens, the picture
was bought by the Duke of Mantua in April 1607 and displayed to the
community of painters at Rome for one week before removal to Mantua.
Culmination of mature style
Artists, men of learning, and enlightened prelates were fascinated
by the robust and bewildering art of Caravaggio, but the negative
reaction of church officials reflected the self-protective
irritation of academic painters and the instinctive resistance of
the more conservative clergy and much of the populace. The more
brutal aspects of Caravaggio's paintings were condemned partly
because Caravaggio's common people bear no relation to the graceful
suppliants popular in much of Counter-Reformation art. They are
plain working men, muscular, stubborn, and tenacious.
Criticism did not cloud Caravaggio's success, however. His
reputation and income increased, and he began to be envied. The
despairing bohemian of the early Roman years had disappeared, but,
although he moved in the society of cardinals and princes, the
spirit was the same, still given to wrath and riot.
The details of the first Roman years are unknown, but after the time
of the Contarelli project Caravaggio had many encounters with the
law. In 1600 he was accused of blows by a fellow painter, and the
following year he wounded a soldier. In 1603 he was imprisoned on
the complaint of another painter and released only through the
intercession of the French ambassador. In April 1604 he was accused
of throwing a plate of artichokes in the face of a waiter, and in
October he was arrested for throwing stones at the Roman Guards. In
May 1605 he was seized for misuse of arms, and on July 29 he had to
flee Rome for a time because he had wounded a man in defense of his
mistress. Within a year, on May 29, 1606, again in Rome, during a
furious brawl over a disputed score in a game of tennis, Caravaggio
killed one Ranuccio Tomassoni.
Flight from Rome
In terror of the consequences of his act, Caravaggio, himself
wounded and feverish, fled the city and sought refuge on the nearby
estate of a relative of the marquis of Caravaggio. He then moved on
to other places of hiding and eventually reached Naples, probably in
early 1607. He remained at Naples for a time, painting a Madonna of
the Rosary for the Flemish painter Louis Finson and one of his late
masterpieces, The Seven Works of Mercy, for the Chapel of Monte
della Misericordia. It is impossible to ignore the connection
between the dark and urgent nature of this painting and what must
have been his desperate state of mind. It is also the first
indication of a shift in his painting style.
At the end of 1607 or the beginning of 1608, Caravaggio traveled to
Malta, where he was received as a celebrated artist. He worked hard,
completing several works, the most important of which was The
Beheading of St. John the Baptist for the cathedral in Valletta. In
this scene of martyrdom, shadow, which in earlier paintings stood
thick about the figures, is here drawn back, and the infinite space
that had been evoked by the huge empty areas of the earlier
compositions is replaced by a high, overhanging wall. This high
wall, which reappears in later works, can be linked to a
consciousness in Caravaggio's mind of condemnation to a limited
space, the space between the narrow boundaries of flight and prison.
On July 14, 1608, Caravaggio was received into the Order of Malta as
a “Knight of Justice”; soon afterward, however, either because word
of his crime had reached Malta or because of new misdeeds, he was
expelled from the order and imprisoned. He escaped, however.
Caravaggio took refuge in Sicily, landing at Syracuse in October
1608, restless and fearful of pursuit. Yet his fame accompanied him;
at Syracuse he painted his late, tragic masterpiece, The Burial of
St. Lucy, for the Church of Santa Lucia. In early 1609 he fled to
Messina, where he painted The Resurrection of Lazarus and The
Adoration of the Shepherds .Then he moved on to Palermo, where he
did the Adoration with St. Francis and St. Lawrence for the Oratorio
di San Lorenzo. The works of Caravaggio's flight, painted under the
most adverse of circumstances, show a subdued tone and a delicacy of
emotion that is even more intense than the overt dramatics of his
earlier paintings.
His desperate flight could be ended only with the pope's pardon, and
Caravaggio may have known that there were intercessions on his
behalf in Rome when he again moved north to Naples in October 1609.
Bad luck pursued him, however; at the door of an inn he was attacked
and wounded so badly that rumours reached Rome that the “celebrated
painter” was dead. After a long convalescence he sailed in July 1610
from Naples to Rome, but he was arrested en route when his boat made
a stop at Palo. On his release, he discovered that the boat had
already sailed, taking his belongings. Setting out to overtake the
vessel, he arrived at Port'Ercole, a Spanish possession within the
Papal States, and he died there a few days later, probably of
pneumonia. A document granting him clemency arrived from Rome three
days after his death.
Influence
The many painters who imitated Caravaggio's style soon became known
as Caravaggisti. Caravaggio's influence in Rome itself was
remarkable but short-lived, lasting only until the 1620s. His
foremost followers elsewhere in Italy were Orazio Gentileschi,
Artemisia Gentileschi, and the Spaniard
Jose de Ribera. Outside
Italy, the Dutch painters Hendrick Terbrugghen, Gerrit van Honthorst,
and Dirck van Baburen made the city of Utrecht the foremost northern
centre of Caravaggism. The single most important painter in the
tradition was the Frenchman Georges de La Tour, though echoes of
Caravaggio's style can also be found in the works of such giants as
Rembrandt van Rijn and
Diego Velazquez.
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see collection:
Caravaggio
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Michelangelo da Caravaggio
Martyrdom of St. Matthew
(1599-1600)
The theatre of cruelty
(Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen)
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The Martyrdom of St Matthew
1599-1600
Oil on canvas, 323 x 343 cm
Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome
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It was Michelangelo Merisi's first large commission, given to the young artist
solely because a finished work was needed as quickly as possible: the Holy Year
of 1600 was nigh and half a million pilgrims from throughout Europe were
expected in Rome. It was essential that the world centre of Christianity make a
great impression on the visitors, thus spreading abroad the glory of God, as
well as that of Pope Clement VIII and his triumphant Counter-Reformation.
Sacked in 1527 by Charles V's mercenaries, Rome had been rebuilt more
beautifully and on an even grander scale than before. The cathedral of St.
Peter's was already finished; wide streets, splendid palaces and countless new
churches added to the town's attractions. Interrupted only by political
instability or financial difficulty, building had continued for the better part
of a century. The foundation stone for San Luigi dei Francesi, for example, the
French Church, had been laid in 1518; the church was finally consecrated in
1589. On the very threshold of the year of celebrations, however, and much to
the annoyance of the French priests, work on the fifth and last chapel on the
left - the Contarelli chapel, named after its founding donor Cardinal Matteu
Cointrel - was not finished.
The renowned artist Guiseppe Cesari d'Arpmo, who, during the nineties, had
decorated its ceiling with frescos, had run out of time before painting the
walls. Like the majority of famous artists during the Roman building boom,
Cesari's time was taken up painting more prestigious work. On 23rd July 1599,
the works committee decided to offer the commission to the 27-year-old, almost
unknown painter Michelangelo Mensi, self-styled "da Caravaggio" after his native
town. By the end of the year, and at a total cost of 400 scudi, the young artist
was to deliver two oil paintings, each measuring 323 by 343 centimetres: the
Calling of the tax-collector Matthew by Christ, and his Martyrdom. The
instructions he received, essentially those conceived for Cesari, demanded an
act of homage to the donor's patron saint. The contract for the Martydom
stipulated a "spatious interior of some depth, like a temple, with an altar at
the head ... Here St. Matthew is murdered by soldiers while celebrating mass ...
and falls, dying but not yet dead; while in the temple a large number of men and
women ... most of them horrified by the dreadful deed ... show terror or
sympathy."
The paintings were officially unveiled in July 1600, six months overdue. The
manner in which Caravaggio had interpreted his "instructions" caused a
"considerable stir" far beyond the walls of the Holy City. Four years later,
news had spread to the distant Netherlands, where Carel van Mander reported that
a certain Agnolo van Caravaggio was "doing extraordinary things in Rome".
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Gentle angels for a cardinal
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The Martyrdom of St Matthew (detail)
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A palm branch, the symbol of divine gratitude, is proffered to the dying martyr
by a young boy. The gesture, far from triumphant, betrays a certain degree of
caution: leaning from a cloud, he supports himself with one hand, perhaps unsure
his wings will carry him. The angel, with flaxen locks and pearly skin, is one
of those gentle creatures so characteristic of Caravaggio's early work: dreamy
strummers of lutes, scantily dressed and crowned with vine-wreaths, raising
chalices of wine or holding ecstatic saints in their arms. Whether antique
Bacchus or Christian angel, these figures reflected the taste and preferred
company of Caravaggio's patron, Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte (1549-1626),
who, according to a contemporary biographer, "was enamoured of the company of
young men".
For several years the church leader offered his protection to the young artist,
providing lodgings, bread and wine in his Roman palace, situated diagonally
opposite the church of San Luigi dei Francesi. The Cardinal gave him regular
pocket money, too, and helped him out of the difficulties into which the
artist's aggressive behaviour repeatedly plunged him. Born in 1571 near Bergamo,
Caravaggio is reputed to have fled from Milan to Rome in 1592 to escape the
consequences of a bloody quarrel. Once in Rome, he was forced to sell his
paintings on the street, between "marrows, nougat, cleaning utensils, drums,
water and heads of veal". But soon enough, according to van Mander, he had
"climbed from poverty through hard work" - assisted, of course, by the
protection of his patron, for whom, from c. 1594, he painted a series of
beautiful boys, many of which betrayed Caravaggio's own features.
The influential cardinal also helped his protege acquire his first big
commission. Initially, Caravaggio had painted relatively small works with few
figures for del Monte's private rooms. The two paintings of St. Matthew, on the
other hand, would be seen by a large number of spectators: some 300,000 French
pilgrims visited their church in Rome during the Holy Year, many of them staying
at the hospice there.
The six-month delay with which Caravaggio delivered the works can be put down to
his unfamiliarity with certain technical problems posed by the task. He was not
only required to adapt his skills to a large-scale format, but had also gathered
little previous experience of integrating such a large number of figures: seven
in the Calling, and 13 in the Martyrdom. Furthermore, Caravaggio had difficulty
calculating the perspective for the "spacious interior of some depth". With the
help of X-rays, art historians have discovered several earlier versions of the
Martyrdom, in which the artist experimented with smaller protagonists in various
different arrangements. Apparently, the Apostle was first shown standing, then
kneeling, while at his side a fierce angel, armed with book and sword, was ready
to confront the murderer. Later, and possibly in the interests of decency, the
naked heavenly messenger was banned to his cloud, where he duly abstained from
further intervention, leaving the martyr to his fate, and executioner.
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To bear witness
and die
for one's beliefs
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The Martyrdom of St Matthew (detail)
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Defenceless, the old man lies on the ground, waiting for the mortal blow. He is
wounded, his robe stained with blood. While all around him flee in panic, the
Apostle meets death "freely", in the name of his faith, as befitted a martyr. A
"witness" to the truth of Christ's divine revelation, he looks his murderer
straight in the eyes.
In order to heighten the dramatic quality of the scene, Caravaggio departs from
tradition. According to the Golden Legend of the saint's life, his executioner
stabbed him "from behind with his sword while St. Matthew stood before the
altar, his arms outstretched in prayer". The Apostle, preaching "in the land of
the Moors", had dared deny the heathen King Hirtacus access to "a virgin devoted
to the Lord", thus incurring the King's wrath. "While mass was held, the King
sent his henchman ... thus the martyrdom was fulfilled."
Caravaggio's contemporaries were exposed to dramatic accounts of martyrdom not
only in the legends of saints. In the age of religious struggle in Europe, both
Protestants and Catholics suffered and died every day on behalf of their
confessions. In England under Elizabeth I, the death penalty awaited anyone
discovered holding mass. As a result some 40 priests were tortured and executed.
By the beginning of the 17th century their portraits were exhibited at the
"English College" in Rome, while the "German College", too, had five martyrs to
its name.
These institutions had been set up by the pope to provide special training for
young priests sent on dangerous missions to Protestant countries. The destiny of
the pupils was a source of envy: "Could I but die the death of these just men!",
enthused the church historian Baronius. They were solemnly addressed as the
"Flores Marty-rum" - the "flower of martyrs".
At that time, the Catholic church was attempting to regain those countries it
had lost to Protestantism during the first half of the 16th century.
Counter-Reformation strategy involved the mobilization of "Christian soldiers",
who were ready to fight and, if necessary, die for their faith. The early
Christian martyrs were held up as shining examples, especially after 1578, when
a landslide revealed part of the forgotten Roman catacombs, rekindling popular
interest in the heroic, founding years of the Church. Excavations began, and the
catacombs were made the object of extensive research. During the celebrations of
1600, a host of pilgrims, in awe-struck reverence, followed in the underground
tracks of the early Christians.
Resurgent interest in the martyrs, together with their suitability for
propaganda purposes, prompted the pope to order a new edition of the
martyrological catalogue, a 'work in progress since the 5th century. In 1584,
Baronius' "Roman Martyrology" appeared in several volumes, a standard work of
monumental stature, lending to the old legends the veneer of historical truth.
Countless new editions of the work have since been published, most recently in
1956.
However, the Protestant side also had its martyrs, in whose honour, as early as
1563, John Foxe published his Book of Martyrs. On St. Bartholomew's Eve of the
year after Caravaggio's birth, thousands of Huguenots were massacred in Paris
for their beliefs. In 1600, when the painting of St. Matthew was unveiled, a man
who regarded himself as a martyr was burnt to death at the stake: Giordano
Bruno, referred to as a "magician" and "unrepentant, stubborn heretic", died
neither for the Catholic nor Protestant faith, but for freedom of thought and
science.
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Bloodthirsty murder, fear and horror
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The Martyrdom of St Matthew (detail)
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The Martyrdom of St Matthew (detail)
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The English College frescos have long since vanished, but in 1582 they showed
the history of England reduced to a series of ghastly scenes of torture and
execution. It was at this time, too, that the Jesuits ordered the decoration of
San Stefano Rotondo, a church belonging to the German College, with 30 gory
scenes illustrating the persecution of Christians. Their motivation for doing so
was largely educational: investing in the persuasive power of the senses and
imagination, the Jesuits used art in their educational establishments to
encourage the militancy of their pupils, at the same time acquainting them with
their probable fate. Confronted daily, whether in the library, refectory or
chapel, with sights of terror and suffering, the future martyrs were accustomed
to the notion of martyrdom at an early age.
"One should not be afraid", wrote Cardinal Paleotti in his "De Imaginibus Sacris"
(Of Sacred Images) in 1594, "to paint the torments of the Christians in all
their horror: with wheels, grates, racks and crosses. The Church wishes, in this
manner, to glorify the courage of its martyrs. But it wishes also to fire the
souls of its sons." This was in accordance with the aims of the
Counter-Reformation: at its final session in 1563, the Council of Trent had
decided to use art to spread the Catholic faith among the uneducated masses. The
clergy were required (as in the case of the Contarelli chapel) to draw up
detailed proposals for paintings, and to ensure not only their precise execution
in the churches, but also their theological correctness, intelligibility and
decorum. Paintings which indulged in the horrific minutiae of torture and
suffering did not offend against these regulations, but responded rather to
widespread predilection.
Renaissance artists had celebrated beauty and harmony, giving little space to
human suffering or death in their work. Yet it was precisely these phenomena
which appear to have fascinated both artists and the public towards the end of
the 16th century - possibly due to Spanish influence, for Spain ruled most of
Italy at the time. Pain, torment, death, cruelty and violence not only had a
considerable impact on art, but were part and parcel of everyday life. Public
executions were turned into pompous displays. The most exciting of these is said
to have taken place on 11 September 1599, when members of the Cenci family were
executed for patricide and the murder of a husband: a bloodthirsty, highly
ritualized piece of theatre, in which both executioner and victim performed with
great aplomb.
In dear contrast to the peaceful scene depicted in his Calling, Caravaggio's
Martyrdom, too, celebrates violence. At the centre of the scene, with his long
sharp weapon, stands the athletic, half-naked figure of the king's henchman.
With a fearful scream from his gaping mouth he storms into the church. Throwing
the martyr to the ground, he steps across his body to deliver the deadly blow.
In the commotion, bystanders flee in panic. A frightened boy screams. The full
light falls on the terrible beauty of the executioner's body. While the others,
including his victim, merely react to the assault, the assailant remains
unchallenged: he is the sole source of energy, the seductive, irresistible force
of aggression incarnate.
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A "wild" and violent painter
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The Martyrdom of St Matthew (detail)
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Screams of terror assume a prominent place in a number of Caravaggio's other
works, painted in the same period as the Martyrdom: the gaping mouth of the
Medusa's severed head, for example, or Holofernes' screaming mouth as Judith
cuts off his head. By the turn of the century, images of horror had begun to
replace the gentle youths of his earlier work. According to Caravaggio's
American biographer Howard Hibbard, images of decapitation and torture now began
to dominate his work to an alarming extent. The wildness of his personality had
exploded into his art.
Police archives in Rome confirm the "wild" and violent nature of the man. His
name turns up on record for the first time shortly after he delivered the
Contarelli painting: on 19 November 1600 the artist "assaulted" a certain
Girolamo Stampa, whom he "beat several times with a stick". According to one
contemporary source, after spending several hours of each day in his studio,
Caravaggio "would appear in various quarters of the city, his sword at his side
as though he were a professional swordsman". Caravaggio went for his dagger at
the slightest provocation. He spent a considerable amount of his time in front
of the magistrate, and his patrons found it increasingly difficult to protect
him from the consequences of his violent temper. They were finally forced to
give up when he killed a man, on 28 May 1606, in a quarrel over a wager.
Caravaggio was forced to flee the Papal State, spending the rest of his life on
the run, a tragic figure. He died in 1610, a mere decade after the two paintings
of St. Matthew had brought his artistic career to fruition.
In his Martydom, the painter has lent his own features to the legendary King
Hirtacus. According to a contemporary, Caravaggio was "ugly ... pale of visage,
with abundant hair and sparkling eyes set deep in his face". The heathen
potentate is shown in the background of the painting, observing the murder of
the Apostle by his henchman. According to the "Golden Legend", his punishment
was fitting: "the victim of horrible leprosy, and unwilling to let himself be
healed, he fell on his own sword."
Yet it was with this rather dismal figure that the 28-year-old Caravaggio, whose
paintings of St. Matthew caused "a considerable stir", identified. New
commissions for work confirmed his success. As early as 1600, he was asked to
paint works for another chapel.
Caravaggio's work nonetheless remained controversial. Though the theme and
violence of the Martydom were in
keeping with contemporary trends, their execution proved a shock to the Roman
art world: this was a radical departure from the prevailing tone in fresco
painting, whose scope was restricted to the bland repetition of patterns,
attitudes and gestures in place since the early Renaissance. It undoubtedly
needed an artist as idiosyncratic as Caravaggio to break the conventional mould:
somebody, for example, who painted living models - a revolutionary innovation in
1600; or someone who put light and shadow to such novel use.
It is quite possible that Caravaggio's reasons for plunging entire areas of his
canvas into inky blackness were entirely practical: on the one hand, cover of
darkness enabled him to cast a veil over the technical difficulties he
encountered with perspective; on the other, starkly accentuated areas of bright
light were effective in attracting spectators to an otherwise inconspicuous
chapel. The scenes depicted in his paintings in the chapel of San Luigi dei
Francesi made an impression not only on the pilgrims of the Holy Year of 1600;
their realism, high dramatic tension and masterful handling of light and shadow
gave a powerful impetus to painting throughout Europe.
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Love Rules the World
Light and shade in
Caravaggio's life
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Amor rules everything, as ancient
writers say. All that Cupid really rules
is our hearts. Only your Amor,
Caravaggio, conquers both hearts
and the senses.
Marzio Milesi, On Michelangelo Merisida Caravaggio
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Amor, Eros, Cupid — no matter what name
he is hiding behind, it is always the god of love that is talked
about, the driving force in the world. Succumb to his charms at your
own peril: "Amor remains a knave. Whoever trusts him will be
deceived", wrote Goethe, who surely knew from experience. In
antiquity Amor was depicted as boyishly charming and wearing wings.
From the fourth century BC, he carried a bow and arrows.
This last guise was the motif Michelangelo Merisi from Caravaggio near
Bergamo had in mind when he accepted a commission from Marquis
Vincenzo Giustiniani in Rome in 1602. Nevertheless, Caravaggio's
Amor was notably different from earlier representations of
mythological figures. His Eros is cheeky, he laughs impertinently,
and is aggressively roguish; he is also sexier than Cupid had ever
been before. Speculation on what his left hand is doing behind his
back fills volumes. All this may have contributed to making the
painting Caravaggios most famous work — and possibly the most
celebrated Cupid in history. Moreover, Amor, who also stands for
homosexuality and was the love child of the love goddess, Aphrodite,
by the god of war, Mars, reflects the duality of Caravaggios own
nature. A passionate lover of men his own age, he could be
dangerously violent on occasion.
Caravaggio was a genius who was known for impish humour. He loved to
stroll through the streets of Rome strumming on his guitar, yet he
also had the reputation of being hot-tempered and was always getting
into brawls. This trait tragically cut his career short. After years
of impoverishment, he had finally achieved recognition. To show how
successful he was, he even allowed a boy to carry his sword. On 29
May 1606, he was involved in a fight, which left one of the
participants dead, murdered — it was maintained — by Caravaggio.
Banished from Rome, he fled to Naples, Malta and Sicily, where
paintings lined his path. At last he arrived in Monte Argentario,
Tuscany, hoping to be permitted to return to Rome. In vain. He died
of malaria in Monte Argentario at the age of thirty-six, "in squalor
and neglect". As the irony of fate would have it, the Papal letter
that would have permitted his return to Rome had already been sent.
It hardly seems a coincidence that Caravaggio should have introduced
chiaroscuro, the dramatic contrast of light and shade, to European
painting, since few painters had as much firsthand experience of
light and dark in their own lives as he had.
K. Reichold, B. Graf
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Amor Victorious
Amor vincit omnia
(Profane Love)
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1602-03
Oil on canvas, 156 x 113 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin |
see collection: Caravaggio
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