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The splendid Caravaggio Art Book with a standard glass of water for scale.
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I
received a very fine art book from Jennifer for Christmas. I spent
more time with this particular book than some others I own featuring a
given artist because it contained a long and detailed biography (in
small print) of a great Italian painter for whom I have developed a
great admiration. Carivaggio: The Complete Works is an art lover's dream. The copious text by Sebastian Schutze
is eye-opening regarding the enigmatic artist. Very little is actually
known about Caravaggio and there are many details included here of
which I was not previously aware.
The book is printed in high
quality with excellent color, and thick, durable pages. It also
contains (in wonderful fleshy-toned color) everything the master painter
ever put to canvas, an extraordinary achievement. I have enjoyed
discovering Caravaggio really since I saw The Resurrection during my visit to the Chicago Art Institute many years ago,
though I have never mentioned him in this blog until now. It was a
budding interest that grew slowly with the passage of time and reached
special fruition with Jennifer's gift.
I learned a lot about
Caravaggio's rather scandalous life. The fight during a sports game,
the resulting death of a rival at his hands, his escape and fugitive
life under some protection by key figures in the Catholic Church and
other wealthy persons who recognized his undeniable genius. Some of the
women with whom he had relations. Also, about the daily life of an
artist during this time period (turn of the century circa 1600) and the
absolutely essential nature of having credit for several commissioned
alterpieces in respected churches if you were to rise out of the
obscurity.
The book is laid out chronologically, earliest
paintings to late works, which complements the biographical nature of
the text. The paintings themselves are simply gorgeous; richly sensual
with warm human flesh tones and appealing, often compelling, symmetry;
lush with expression and gesture. Brilliantly using light and dark
(with darkness sometimes being the bulk of a given painting) to often
create a wonderful exploration of shadows which Rembrandt would later
build upon.
The large pages feature several foldouts of the
paintings so the readers can appreciate both the delicate details as
well as the radiant splendor of entire composition. Over the course of
240 pages we are treated to all of Caravaggio's paintings along with a
few by other artists that either inspired him in his youth or simply
show a more established treatment of a given subject which he
transcended with his distinctive style. We are shown what influenced
and inspired him as well as how he pushed boundaries and forged new
standards. This is a complete collection of the artist's work and it clearly stands on its own, distinguished from anything that came before him.
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Rest on the Flight into Egypt, c. 1597
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For me, the highlights the book include the analysis of Rest on the Flight into Egypt.
The holy family is seen in repose with Joseph holding sheet music which
is being played by an winged angel, naked with its back to us. The
book claims: “The central figure of the angel making music has no
precedents...and is a completely novel invention by Caravaggio.” (page
70) This reflects how Caravaggio not only was a supreme painter but he
was highly intellectual as well, always approaching what was traditional
in novel and unique ways.
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St. Matthew and the Angel, 1602. The painting is offered in black and white and compared with a more traditional (and acceptable) approach to the subject by another artist of the period. The original painting was destroyed during World War Two. The causal positioning of the feet was unacceptable to the church. Picky times.
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Sometimes his penchant for breaking established presentation of subjects got him into trouble. His initial offering of St. Matthew and the Angel alterpiece “...pleased nobody and was replaced...According to Bellori,
the clergy of San Luigi dei Francesi rejected the picture on the
grounds that the saint, with his bare feet and legs crossed, lacked all
decorum ('...the priests removed it, saying that the figure, sitting
with his legs crossed and feet rudely exposed to the public, had neither
decorum nor the aspect of a saint').” (page 111)
A small black
and white photo of the original painting (which was destroyed near the
end of World War Two) is provided. The figure is situated with his legs
crossed and bare feet presented forward toward the viewer in a rather
casual repose. That it was considered almost profane to exhibit feet
in such a way reveals something about the cultural times in which the
artist lived. It also serves as a measure of Caravaggio's boldness as
an artist. This time, it did not work out for him.
There were a
couple of alterpieces that were initially rejected by the artist's
patrons. Early traditional biographers attempted to use these
rejections to denigrate him and make him seem less of an accomplished
painter due to his short but scandalous lifestyle. Obviously, the glory
of his art won out over such orthodox attempts. We should let this
serve as a shining example of how the merit of any artist's private life
should NOT be used to cast judgment upon that creator's work (a la Woody Allen, for example).
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The Seven Works of Mercy, circa 1607. The book offers the full painting on the right with details in a fold-out section.
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The fold-out. There are several of these throughout the book which allows a close-up examination of the details of the larger paintings.
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Three
other works really caught my eye and deserve to be noted. Two of them
are presented in their full context with wonderful fold-outs so you can
really get a sense of Caravaggio's sensual style in the play with light
and darkness, all of which would influence artists of the next
generation. The first is The Seven Works of Mercy. This
spectacular painting is packed with contrast, action, and more than a
dozen figures in various acts of mercy. It is based on a passage in the
Gospel of Matthew and depicts the giving by various characters of food,
drink, clothing, shelter, tending to the sick and imprisoned. Like
many of the painter's works, you can easily become lost while opening
yourself to all the details of this affecting piece of art.
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The Calling of St, Matthew, 1599-1600.
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The fold-out offering marvelous details of this masterpiece.
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The second is The Calling of St. Matthew.
This striking alterpiece is entirely illuminated from right to left by a
stark beam of light apparently from a window above and behind Peter and
Jesus (called “Christ” throughout the book, which is likely how the
artist referred to him). This ray illuminates a portion of Jesus's face
though most of it is in shadow, his right arm is extended in a pointing
gesture but the hand remains in a relaxed pose. Peter's back is to us,
blocking our view of Jesus, facing him. His hand gestures in identical
fashion only it is even more relaxed, almost hesitating. Matthew sits
looking directly into the light with money and a ledger before him. He
points to himself as he looks at Jesus and Peter as if to say “Who?
Me?” The two figures at the end of the table do not notice, they are
busy counting coins.
One odd thing about this painting is that
while Jesus and Peter are attired in robes, as you would expect,
everyone else is dressed in garments and the fashion of the early
1600's. The book notes this without any particular explanation. I
assume it was to make the painting more relatable to the people of that
time. Caravaggio included Peter late in the process. There is no
biblical reference to the saint being present in this moment. Yet his
presence here, especially cloaking the figure of Jesus and the pointing
arm, certainly suggests the authority of the Catholic Church. Jesus is
literally pointing through Peter.
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The Supper at Emmaus, 1607.
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The third has no fold-out but is nevertheless remarkable to behold. The Supper at Emmaus. This work brilliantly captures a sudden moment in time, when Jesus is first recognized by two unidentified disciples after his resurrection. Their shock and awe is marvelously captured. One has his arms on his chair, elbows out toward the viewer about to rise from his seated position. The other has his arms stretched outward (almost like a crucifixion) and his hands open, fingers of his left hand stretching toward the viewer. It is a powerful study in energy, emotion, and, of course, contrasting light and dark.
One of the most amazing facts I learned about Caravaggio was that, unlike almost every other great painter in history, he drew no sketches. Everything he did was directly on the canvas. If he experimented, then he simply painted over it if the result was not to his liking (or the liking of his patron). An example of this is is late addition of Peter to The Calling of St. Matthew as I mentioned above.
The marvelous book finishes with more than 50 pages of each painting reduced to fit a three-column per page format of a small color image of the work of art above and small explanatory text below summarizing the subject, technique and composition of each work. This is truly an exceptional catalog and I haven't had time to do more than scan all the summarized and additional information available in this portion of the volume. This is a book one can spend many hours with to fully absorb. I'm sure I will return to it, as I do all my art books, repeatedly going forward for both reference and inspiration.
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