Michelangelo Mirisi de Caravaggio. Inspiration from the great masters.

Similar and not-so-similar works.

Let us compare several paintings. In his work “St. Jerome”, the same muted background is used, but the main details are brightly highlighted. Just as in the painting with John, the body, skin texture, texture of fabrics are well worked out. Blood red is one of the author’s favorite colors. A symbol of Christ’s blood and royalty, the color of the vestments of cardinals and bishops. On the forehead of Jerome is a bright glare, but not overlight. Like John he is consecrated brightly, contrastingly, but without loss of darkness. Let us compare it with Titian’s work. Here everything is a little softer, although the light accents perfectly laid on the canvas. The skin is softer, not so textured, smoothed. Rembrandt’s “The Return of the Prodigal Son.” Rembrandt studied with Caravaggio and thought very highly of him. He strongly softens the light and shadow pattern, does not emphasize the texture here, he has everything more intimate, muted, at the same time, color accents are noticeable and important. It is more of an “almost side-by-side” than a copy or imitation. And at the time of painting, Rembrandt was already considered and was a master. 

The image of John the Baptist is one of the most popular among Renaissance and later artists. 

I like geniuses whose life is an adventure. People who consist of two hypostases — the artist and the hustler. The life of body and spirit and soul moves in parallel, in non-obvious plots, intersecting in the works as in a bifurcation point. Caravaggio resembles Joseph Brodsky in both the power of genius and the power of suffering.

 In the measure of projection into time, of course. In the painting St. John has, on the one hand, internal drama, the play of light only emphasizes his inner metamorphosis. The prophet seems alive, not very ascetic, young beautiful, but tense body, with clearly readable internal mental conflict. Not at all young John will appear in Caravaggio’s painting “Cutting off the Head of John the Baptist”. 

His head is a self-portrait of the artist, and he is scary. Although, to be fair, I note that, purely historically, the character’s age difference with the image “In the Desert” is only three years. It seems that Life. The young John the Baptist is placed in a kind of garden. Stylistically one guesses the remnants of Mannerist painting. The foliage evokes youthful, green lightness. Judging by the vegetation, this is not a desert. So John is depicted before the moment of going into asceticism. 

The young man is serious, but those secular curls, for some reason the artist decided so. Slightly lighter than the image of the prophet, but more serious than the boy from the street. The clothes, of course, are of the Catholic canon. After all, John wore nothing but a girdle and Caravaggio could not have been unaware of this.1. Антон Рафаэль Менгс. 

2. Hans Memling. 3. Giovanni Batista Piazzetta, 17th century.4. El Greco. 

The context of the era.

Italy. Late 16th, early 17th century. An era incredibly rich in art and science. At the same time… Fragmentation. On the territory of Italy several independent states, among them the Duchy of Milan and the Papal area, as well as — the Kingdom of Naples (Our hero, by the way, visited everywhere). There were religious wars all over Europe. The economy was rising and falling. The power of the Catholic Church, with its corrupt, greedy cardinals, extended to everyone and everything. The collapse of the Renaissance led to the Reformation. Catholicism came to be condemned. The sale of indulgences, essentially forgiveness of sins for money, began! The Church’s credibility declined. Nevertheless, it was then that the Church supported new artistic movements and artists! 

Apparently, to strengthen the authority among the aristocracy, which already wanted change., change in everything In painting subsides Renaissance and in contrast to it, as a new and progressive, appears Mannerism. Prevails more emotionality, dynamism. A departure from the central composition, bright non-naturistic colors, unusual perspectives. It was short, but it was a revolution. To refute the old norms and move away from the classics. At this point and grows the genius of Caravaggio, pushing the next concept to the margins. In essence, he is the alternative. 

When he was 5 years old, his father and mother died of malaria. So, after a long wandering, he begins to learn to paint. From the Mannerists, of course. 

And already at the age of 13 he does it in a decent workshop of a pupil of Titian. The character of Caravaggio can be characterized as quarrelsome, pugnacious, prone to adventures and drunken brawls. How much this goes against his painting! Unless, of course, you know that the models served him, as a rule, all the same people from the street, with whom, perhaps, last night he fought to the blood. 

An alternative that quickly became avant-garde

His talent, in spite of his chaotic life, stood outside the schools. The aim was to show the inner problems of spiritual and worldly nature in a realistic, innovative way through various images. It was a challenge, an alternative that quickly became avant-garde, and even by the end of his life had not become fashionable. At the age of 22, after another scandal and a fight, he fled to Rome. There he got acquainted with many patrons of the arts, as well as with Bruegel the Elder. Once again for debauch and brawl he was put in prison, where he met Giordano Bruno. 

I don’t think it was a silent time. In paintings he uses the manner of Leonardo, Bellini and Montaigne. All of these tended to be expressed in ecclesiastical subjects. At the age of 23 he falls ill with fever and for six months is between life and death. After which everything changes dramatically. The smell of death, its presence leads to an inner reassessment. 

He paints realistic, democratic paintings — simple people, in simple situations. Multifigure appears. Characters are flooded with bright light, as if pushed close to the viewer. They are plastic and thorough. At the same time, working for Cardinal del Monte, where he meets Galileo and Campanella. Again, I don’t think they just drank wine, silently)At 25, he gets a recommendation to join the Academy of St. Luke. But he is not accepted. He’s not understood! Too innovative. At the age of 25-28, he creates his own style, the Chiaroscuro style. More precisely, he establishes himself in it as a master.1. Penitent Mary Magdalene. 2. The Resurrection of Lazarus.

And for the first time, he’s writing women. Penitent Mary Magdalene, for example. 

The paintings show naturism, not accepted then, in the era of Mannerism… Poses, skin condition, clothing… Everything is as realistic as possible. The work with light becomes more and more clear, one can guess the handwriting. Caravaggio’s devotion to realism sometimes went very far. Example — the work on the painting “The Resurrection of Lazarus”. “Referring to eyewitness testimony, literary Susinno tells how in the allotted for the workshop spacious room at the hospital of the Crusader brotherhood of the artist ordered to bring dug out of the grave the body of a recently killed young man and undress him to achieve greater authenticity in the writing of Lazarus. Two hired sitters flatly refused to pose, holding in his hands already beginning to decompose the corpse. T

hen, enraged, Caravaggio snatched a dagger and forced them to forcefully submit to his will”. That’s what the Master is all about. At the age of 27, also under the influence of Michelangelo’s works, Caravaggio wrote John the Baptist. At this point, he is already very famous. He is a great revolutionary of painting. The painting John the Baptist was the starting point in the creation of a series of biblical characters of amazing depth. In the canvases there are direct quotations from Michelangelo (the painting of the Vatican Chapel, the sculpture on the tomb of Pope Julius — Moses). 

Gestures, poses. But not the manner of writing. He can write for a few hours, and then all day and all night to go on a bender. No drafts. Maybe he was lazy? Or he was in a hurry to live a different life, in a hurry to live.