Michelangelo da Caravaggio E-Book

Félix Witting

• Herausgeber: Parkstone International
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 210

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

After staying in Milan for his apprenticeship, Michelangelo da Caravaggio arrived in Rome in 1592. There he started to paint with both realism and psychological analysis of the sitters. Caravaggio was as temperamental in his painting as in his wild life. As he also responded to prestigious Church commissions, his dramatic style and his realism were seen as unacceptable. Chiaroscuro had existed well before he came on the scene, but it was Caravaggio who made the technique definitive, darkening the shadows and transfixing the subject in a blinding shaft of light. His influence was immense, firstly through those who were more or less directly his disciples. Famous during his lifetime, Caravaggio had a great influence upon Baroque art. The Genoese and Neapolitan Schools derived lessons from him, and the great movement of Spanish painting in the seventeenth century was connected with these schools. In the following generations the best endowed painters oscillated between the lessons of Caravaggio and the Carracci.

Leseprobe

Authors:

Félix Witting and M.L. Patrizi

Translation:

Andrew Byrd and Marlena Metcalf

© 2023 Parkstone Press International, New York

© 2023 Confidential Concepts, Worldwide, USA

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All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or adapted without the permission of the copyright holder, throughout the world. Unless otherwise specified, copyright on the works reproduced lies with the respective photographers, artists, heirs or estates. Despite intensive research, it has not always been possible to establish copyright ownership. Where this is the case, we would appreciate notification.

Félix Witting and M.L. Patrizi

Contents

Introduction

His Fate

The Early Years and Departure for Rome

Milan

Venice

Departure for Rome

The First Roman Works and the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi

The First Roman Works

The Paintings of the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi

Condemned to Exile

Naples

Malta

The Face as the Reflection of the Soul

The Birth of a Style

The Painter of Pleasures and Taboos

Caravaggio or the Aesthetic Revolution

Caravaggio in a Different Light

The Life of Caravaggio by Giovanni Pietro Bellori

Notiziaby Mancini

The Curriculum Vitae of a Criminal Painter

Letter of 29 July 1610 from the Bishop of Caserte to Cardinal Scipione Borghese

Conclusion

Biography

Index

Bibliographical Notes

Ottavio Leoni, Portrait of Caravaggio.

Pastel on paper, 23.5x16cm.

Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence.

Introduction

Although Caravaggio and his art may have been forgotten for almost three hundred years, it can safely be said that since the beginning of the 20thcentury this oversight has largely been compensated for. Despite his dismissal by critics (was it not Poussin who stated that he came in order to destroy painting?) and his fall into oblivion, his name seems to have reappeared in collective memory during certain periods of history. Even in his own time, a contemporary of Caravaggio, Giovanni Baglione recognised the artist’s importance as a discoverer of a distinctly modern style[1]. Despite stating that Caravaggio had a great desire for the“approval of the public, who do not judge with their eyes, but look with their ears”, and that he had urged many younger artists to pay attention to the colouring alone instead of the composition of figures, Baglione described Caravaggio’s works as“made with the greatest diligence, in the most exquisite way”. Caravaggio’s patron, Marchese Vincenzio Giustiniani di Bassano (1564-1637), never doubted Caravaggio’s genius during the artist’s lifetime. In a letter to the advocate Teodoro Amideni he quotes the painter, reiterating a point of view that he found conclusive[2]:“as Caravaggio himself said, a painting of flowers requires as much care as one of people”–“of the highest class of painters – we have Caravaggio”. Caravaggio painted his“Cupido a sedere”(Amor Victorious) for him, and when the altarpiece of Saint Matthew for the Capella Contarelli in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi was rejected by the congregation, it was the Marchese who acquired it[3]. The art historian Giulio Cesare Gigli indulged in extravagant praise for Caravaggio in thepittura trionfanteabout his art:“This is the great Michelangelo Caravaggio, an awe-inspiring painter, the marvel of art, the miracle of nature”[4]. In the 18thcentury, the director of the Spanish Academy in Rome, Francisco Preziado, described the artist, in a letter to Giambattista Ponfredi dated 20 October 1765, as the founder of a school to which Ribera and Zurbarán also belonged[5]. During the age of Classicism, sporadic attention was paid to the artist and his tumultuous life, but it was during the Romantic era that particular interest in this pioneer of the Baroque was aroused. The great philosopher Schopenhauer (1788-1860) acknowledged the importance of his work[6], but from an expert point of view it was Waagen (1794-1868), professor of Art History, who sought to describe Caravaggio’s characteristics[7]. As an art historian, Manasse Unger (1802-1868) then carried out studies in a more academic vein on the artistic effects of the painter in hisKritische Forschungen(Critical Research)[8], and wrote Caravaggio’s biography[9], which was as complete as it could be at that time, according to J. Meyer’s historical judgement. It was the art historian Eisenmann who later tried to make sense of the fluctuating criticism concerning the importance of this artist[10].A literary portrait of Caravaggio was published by the historians Woltmann (1841-1880) and Woermann (1844-1933), putting the artist within the historical development of painting[11]. Strangely reserved, but thus causing all the more excitement, were the few but grave words of art historian J. Burckhardt (1818-1897), which appeared in a dedication to the artist in the first edition ofCicerone, and which was barely altered in later adaptations of this work[12]. Meanwhile, modern painters such as Théodule Ribot (1823-1891) had already sided with the master of the Baroque with their theories on art, deliberately searching for a way to preserve the intentions of their French Caravaggio, the master Valentin de Boulogne[13]. Only an objective historical look at the artist and his works and the recognition of a psychological dimension to his œuvre were missing in order to penetrate beyond literary enthusiasm to Caravaggio’s immortal merits.

The life of Caravaggio has given rise to numerous biographical interpretations, all focused on the violent and extravagant personality of the painter. One of these, written in the form of a poem, is the famousNotiziaby Mancini (the translation of which appears towards the end of this book), which relates the major events in the life of Caravaggio. According to this poem and other various historical sources, Michelangelo Merisi was born in September 1571, probably the 29th, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, in Milan where his father worked for Francesco I Sforza, Marchese of Caravaggio. The predisposition for painting which Caravaggio demonstrated at an early age could have been inherited from his father who was, as Mancini states,“foreman and architect to the Marchese of Caravaggio”. This contradicts the writings of Bellori (of which there is also a translation towards the end of this book) according to whom Caravaggio, whose father was a mason, like his contemporary Polidoro, would have, from a young age, carried the buckets of lime and plaster used in the making of frescos. It seems rather probable that Caravaggio inherited a fine talent from his ancestors although certain biographers have minimised its significance.

His parents were honourable citizens. As an employee of the Marchese, his father enjoyed a certain protection, from which Caravaggio would benefit throughout his life. In 1576, the plague that swept the Duchy of Milan forced Michelangelo Merisi’s family to flee the city. They moved to the small town of Caravaggio where Michelangelo spent his childhood. Several months after their departure from Milan, Michelangelo Merisi, then aged six, lost his father.

Seven years later, on 6 April 1584, Caravaggio began his apprenticeship in the studio of the painter Simone Peterzano in Milan, where he studied with diligence for four or five years. He already showed some signs of extravagance, caused, it is said, by his excessive and hot-tempered personality.

Sick Bacchus or Satyr with Grapes, c. 1593.

Oil on canvas, 67x53cm.

Boy with a Basket of Fruit, c. 1593.

Oil on canvas, 70x67cm.

Museo e Galleria Borghese, Rome.

His Fate

The Early Years and Departure for Rome

Milan

Some early works preserved in Milan from the time when Caravaggio lived in the city, and presumed to be his, have been somewhat neglected by research. Despite the fact that today their attribution to Caravaggio is contested, these works are nevertheless important to our investigation, as they demonstrate certain characteristics typical of his work. Caravaggio developed his tendency towards the monumental genre from the observation of work by the Bergamasque painter Giovanni Cariani (active between 1511 and 1541); in his group of merry companions on a terrace from the year 1519 and in hisLute Playerhe touched on similar motifs to Caravaggio. Later Caravaggio would dedicate himself in a significant way to this imposing genre, though even at the beginning of his career he tended towards the grandiose. In certain of these Milanese works, the hand of Michelangelo Merisi’s master can easily be perceived. This master was Bernardino Lanini[14], in whose work the influence of Gaudenzio Ferrari is clearly recognisable. At this time, Caravaggio seems to have concentrated solely on the physical form of the human figure, depicted simply against a neutral background. Setting aside the classical heritage, the figure takes over the painting. This would become gradually more and more apparent in his work, and eventually one of Caravaggio’s distinguishing features. Caravaggio was also noticeably inspired by the work of Butinone, in particular the evocative motif of Saint Anne surrounded by her family. A certain tautness in a number of his paintings evokes the works of the former Milanese School, and highlights the fact that the young Caravaggio had only a limited number of resources at his disposal, which forced him to fight his way towards the freedom to which he aspired from a young age.

It can be observed that the young artist turned towards portraiture, attracted – as his early works demonstrate – by the realistic representation of genre motifs.The grandeur of his style already marked him out from his contemporaries. On examination of the works of his masters, it can be supposed that it was the exhortations of Gaudenzio Ferrari and his Milanese successor Bernardino Lanini that encouraged him to imitate them[15]. The bright colours used by these two artists can also be found in Merisi’s early works, an aesthetic impression used to great and unusual effect in Caravaggio’s later works. However, Caravaggio demonstrated considerable skill in the modelling of the human form much earlier than the artists mentioned, and he revealed powers of observation only previously seen in another Lombard artist, Guido Mazzoni, who had displayed similar skill with his clay sculptures, notably those in the Church of Santa Anna dei Lombardi[16]. The head of Nicodemus inThe Entombmentin the Vatican Gallery indicates that he studied the sculptor’s work, which was striking in its naturalism. Likewise, it was probably Lanini who spoke to Caravaggio of Venice, where, after five or six years in Milan, the artist spent some time.

Venice

After such preparation, it was logical that Caravaggio would be fascinated by the Venetian artists. The glory of Giorgione and Titian, who had only recently died, was still radiant; Veronese’s modelling and the vibrant colours of Paris Bordone certainly attracted Caravaggio, but it was above all Tintoretto, with his striking artistic talent, who fascinated the young artist. Unger described the great Venetian artist, with respect to Caravaggio, in the following way:“Tintoretto, faced with the nature of man and his natural tendency to violence, depicts this characteristic somewhat simplistically without giving the opportunity to analyse the origin of these violent impulses”[17].

Eerie, threatening nights, where lightning streaks the sky and the smoky flames of blazing bonfires leap up to the sky, create a strong contrast to whole parts of his paintings which are in the dark, whereas others are spookily illuminated by greenish, glaring lights[18].

The intense colouring, which had attracted Caravaggio so much to the work of Gaudenzio Ferrari and his successors, dazzled him in Tintoretto’s œuvre. He applied what he found there in a decided manner to the cycle of paintings of Saint Matthew for the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, producing an even more striking effect.

Boy Bitten by a Lizard, 1593.

Oil on canvas, 65.8x52.3cm.

Longhi Collection, Florence.

Boy Peeling Fruit (copy), c. 1592-1593.

Oil on canvas, 75.5x64.4cm.

But it was Tintoretto’s ability to synthesise multiple expressions within a single painting, thus bringing out the innermost feelings of the characters, which was very much the unifying element in his work that Caravaggio admiringly sought to adopt. The Milanese artist’s talent for three-dimensional modelling never tempted him, however, into the exciting narrative elements that the Venetian artist had so remarkably mastered.

We may assume that, after leaving the Lombard capital, Caravaggio was in Venice around 1585. Although we cannot know for certain when he arrived in the city, there is no doubt that the death of his mother around that time would have strengthened his resolve to leave Milan. The artistic influence that Milan had on him was later assessed as central to hissubsequent artistic development[19]. According to Baglione, Federigo Zucchero made a comment about Caravaggio’s work to which we owe the certain indication that, in reality, it was Giorgio Barbarelli, known as Giorgione, under whose spell the young artist fell.“I cannot look at them without seeing the influence of Giorgione”, commented the well-known mannerist of the Roman School about Caravaggio’s paintings in San Luigi dei Francesi[20], a judgement that did not really fit the works criticised, as they had already overcome the Venetian influence and displayed Caravaggio’s own characteristic style. In Roman artists’circles at that time it was believed that Caravaggio had close links to Venice. From this period, the young and susceptible artist indulged in the magic of Venetian painting, which was then at its peak. The painters of the time most admired by Caravaggio were attempting to characterise their subjects better by creating works of large dimensions on a restrained background. One thinks particularly of Giorgione’s portraits of men in Berlin and Brunswick[21], and of the portrait of a young man by Torbido at the Pinakothek in Munich[22]. Caravaggio’s own canvases reached almost gigantic proportions, beyond the works of Torbido and Giorgione. The idea of pure contemplation of the subject, which the Venetian artists preferred, was in this way surpassed by Caravaggio.

According to Eisenmann, there is a painting of the biblical Judith from Caravaggio’s Venetian period, formerly in the La Motta Collection in the Treviso region, which is now said to be in English private possession. Waagen, who otherwise conveys a precise knowledge of these collections, does not mention the painting. There is one work depictingJudith and Holofernes, painted around 1598-1599, that can be found today in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome. According to Baglione, Caravaggio may have painted another of the same subject for the Signori Costi in Rome. It is difficult to judge whether he is referring to the same work, but there is nevertheless another depiction of Judith, painted several years later in 1607, that is currently in Naples. It seems likely that Baglione was referring to a copy.

Departure for Rome

Some years later, aged twenty-one, Caravaggio went to Rome where, undoubtedly helped by his uncle who already lived in the city, he lodged with a landlord who lived a modest life, Fr Pandolfo Pucci di Recanati, an acquaintance of Monsignor Pucci, beneficiary of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. A document left by the historian W. Kallab indicates that the artist lived in comfortable conditions, but complained about certain aspects of domestic life, in particular about the meals which were composed entirely of salad and chicory. This is partly why after some months he left the home of Pandolfo Pucci, to whom he gave the nickname“Monsignor Insalata”. This same document indicates that the host commissioned from the young painter several works with religious subjects which were intended for his home town. It was at this time that Caravaggio fell ill and, having no money, he was admitted to the hospital of Santa Maria della Consolazione, where, during his convalescence, he painted numerous canvases for the Prior.

Caravaggio’s experiences in Venice were still strongly influencing him whilst in Rome, and he continued to concentrate on acquiring his own majestic style. That was the aim behind, and the result of, his apprenticeship in the studio of the Cavalier d’Arpino. In 1593, Caravaggio entered the studio of the successful painter Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino, also known as the Cavalier d’Arpino. Baglione tells us that“he stayed with the Cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino for several months”[23]. Caravaggio turned to him in order to find connections to artistic circles in the Eternal City. Guiseppe Cesari has left frescos in the Trinità de’Monti, in the chapel of the Palazzo di Monte Cavallo, and – his best work – in the Capella Olgiati in San Prassede. In the Capella Contarelli in San Luigi de’Francesi, where he started the frescos, Caravaggio was to become his successor[24].

D’Arpino worked mostly as a fresco painter and tried to pass on to his pupil the somewhat grandiose side of Romanesque art, from which base he could expand the means and resources at his disposal. Caravaggio’s works show that he neither ignored the advice of his artistic masters, nor the works of other artists, often even those of a heterogeneous style. He studied Antique art with diligence and emulated Michelangelo Buonarotti. He even undertook the painting of the sign of his brother Frangiabigio Angelo’s perfumery, in this way further developing genre painting[25], as we can see inThe Fortune Teller(pp.21,22).

The Ecstasy of Saint Francis, 1594.

Oil on canvas, 92.5x128cm.

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art,

Hartford (Connecticut).

The Cardsharps, c. 1595.

Oil on canvas, 94.2x130.9cm.

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth.

The Musicians, c. 1595.

Oil on canvas, 92x118.5cm.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

However, save his tendency for grandeur, the Cavalier d’Arpino, with his more generalistic style, had very little to pass on to the painter from northern Italy. Even so, at that time, Giuseppe Cesari was considered one of the most influential artists in Rome. One imagines that an unknown protector recommended Caravaggio to Cesari, opening the door to his prestigious studio. Whilst the Cavalier d’Arpino concentrated on frescos, Caravaggio, as Baglione clearly states, devoted himself first and foremost to oil painting[26]. He was employed“to paint flowers and fruit”. The still life genre, which was very fashionable in Lombardy, began to evolve towards a very realistic representation where each detail was highlighted as if it had been magnified by an optical lens. The representation of natural elements predominated in the first works of Caravaggio:Boy with a Basket of Fruit,Boy Peeling a Fruit(copy),andBasket of Fruit. The sensuality of the two boys in these works is evident, though the declaration by certain critics that these paintings are odes to homosexuality seems somewhat exaggerated and simplistic. It is true, however, that slightly parted lips charge a painting with eroticism, and Caravaggio did occasionally hide messages within his works. Thus the fruit that the boy is peeling could be a bergamot, a bitter orange, the symbol of Universal Love. During the Middle Ages, it was not unusual for a husband to put on vermillion robes, which Goethe declared in his treatise“represent the colour of extreme ardour as well as the gentlest reflection of the setting sun”[27]. Therefore this painting could symbolise the transition from child to adult, with the bitter taste of the fruit representing the end of innocence.

Nevertheless, Nature was not, for Caravaggio, the great protector and dominator of mankind that so many other artists took it to be. Nature provided him with no feelings of exaltation nor of lyrical depression, it did not flood his soul with joy or fear, it inspired neither adoration nor meditation within him. It offered him simply a framework, a theatrical scene within which to place his characters or a series of objects, which he could reproduce faithfully on the canvas, conforming to the fundamental principles of naturalists. He was aiming, according to his own words,“to imitate the things of nature”, while at the same time conforming to the standards set by his Lombardian masters. As previously noted, Caravaggio himself said on this subject that“a painting of flowers requires as much care as one of people”. Although Merisi pronounced this himself, he did later admit, conforming to the general opinion of the time, that the human form could never be compared to simple fruit and vegetables. Beyond the prevalence of vegetables, Caravaggio’s contemporaries must have been impressed by the realism of his paintings. The sensuality which emanates from Caravaggio’s early works deeply moves the spectator from the first viewing. However, his first masterpiece, the soft and luminous landscape of theRest on the Flight to Egypt– which clearly reminds us of the style of Giorgione – evokes more than the simple sensory impressions of the outside world.

The Fortune Teller (second version), c. 1595-1598.

Oil on canvas, 99x131cm.

The Fortune Teller (first version), c. 1595.

Oil on canvas, 115x150cm.

Musei Capitolini, Rome.

The serene sky reflected in the calm water, the caress of light on the oak tree, the cherry laurel and the white poplars; the tender flair of the marshland reeds with their frayed leaves surrounding the three-leaved brambles have been brought together in order to create a harmony, a source of beauty to which the young artist was sensitive. In addition, Caravaggio paid particular attention to the expression of the face, as one can see in the apparent pain of the child inBoy Bitten by a Lizard. The instantaneousness of the boy’s reaction and the mask of pain on his face are so unmistakeably realistic and accurate that they cannot help but evoke feeling in the viewer. The working of the facial expression is remarkable and the intensity of feeling within the work is extraordinary. Throughout his career, Caravaggio worked ceaselessly at the expressions and feelings of his subjects.

After several months, according to Baglione, Caravaggio, independent of a master, occupied himself with painting some self-portraits in the mirror. There are several works today which could be examples of these, but their attributions are still debatable[28]. Amongst the impressions collected in Venice, for example, there was a painted self-portrait made up of warm tones, essentially brown in colouring, with which the thick white paint of the collar and clothes contrasted strikingly, and a soft, gentle face despite the sword“which sat so loosely in its sheath”. The somewhat heroic golden tone sets the painting within his early Roman period. Another self-portrait, at one time in the collection of the Duke ofOrleans, is currently missing[29]. It showed the artist in a beggar-like outfit, seen almost entirely from behind in a lost profile pose, holding a mirror in front of him, in which his weathered but not unattractive face is reflected; next to him is a skull. He next painted Baglione as Bacchus with grapes“with much diligence, but little sentiment”[30]. This painting, which was at one time lost, was seized by tax officials from the Cavalier d’Arpin in 1607. It can now be found in the Galerie Borghese, where it has been for several years. Caravaggio may have represented himself here as thesick Bacchus, excited to be recreating reality. The youth’s pale and wan complexion gives away his poor health. Is this the malaria, as many critics like to think, that debilitated Caravaggio? Whether or not this is so, the dubious whiteness of the cloth indicates the painter’s convalescence. The fruit in the foreground is also noticeable as a silent witness to the still lifes of Caravaggio’s early work. Likewise, the fact that he placed this fruit in the foreground, rather than the god Bacchus, betrays the artist’s typical will to go against all the supposed“rules”of the time. Sensuality reigns in this painting, and the exposed shoulder of the figure only serves to reinforce this impression. Gorging himself on grapes, the youth turns towards the viewer as if in invitation. The realism in this painting is striking, and one can see the extent of Caravaggio’s mastery of the art of feeling and suggestion. The figure’scontrappostopose highlights the influence of the statuary art of the artist’s namesake, Michelangelo Buonarotti.