Saturday, April 11, 2009

Blog V "Caravaggio" and Baroque Art

There's something particular about Caravaggio that got my attention, since I started reading about his life and work, I admired is Chiaroscuro technique and the fact that he wasn't the first Painter using that, but he was the one that elevated it to a point of perfection and Realism, and if we talk about Realism in Caravaggio's work we have to mention the fact that he used actual people as models to create his paintings, (clever right?) maybe not if we think it in our times but at that time the fact that started searching for people and searching for faces that will inspire him to paint and represent human beings that he knew just in his head or by reading in the Bible( in case of religious paintings) in some of his paintings he was h9is own muse, as he appears in a lot of them, they are consider self portraits but in some of them he was representing some else.

another interesting fact about Caravaggio is that he was able to create a real business with his work, selling amazing quantities of the same work making copies,l a perfect example ifs The Fortune Teller, there are 50 copies altought there not identical, they are all the same concept, I also appreciate the fact that he painted people in their real way with the real image of what he was looking at, I feel that these give more credibility to his work, and altought it took him more than a life time to gain a deserved position in the art world as one of the best painters of Italy, he's now one of the main characters in the Baroque Art.

3 comments:

kimberlie said...

Hi Sergio,
Thanks for researching and writing about Caravaggio. He was a colorful character! Its too bad he was not able to realize the effect he had on the art world with his extreme tenebrism... everybody wanted to copy his style after he was gone. I enjoyed your post and learned more about this trendsetting artist.
Kimberlie

Chris Laban said...

Hi,
Looking at the images you posted and what is in the text, I think it's interesting how he seems to paint figures have the same expressions and poses. I guess that is the nature of still life paintings.
Chris

Lizzy said...

Hi Sergio! I definitely share your enthusiasm for Caraviggio's use of "real" people in his art. During some reading I did on him, I discovered he actually used street people and prostitutes as many of his models. Can you believe the reaction that may have created in some of his wealthy patrons? But to them I would say, hey, how do you know she is a prostitute anyway? Anyway, thanks for your interest in Caravaggio and for giving us more tidbits of knowledge!