This painting (on the left) is by one of my favorite artists, the Italian baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, better known simply as Caravaggio. It’s entitled The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew. The painting displays the artist’s trademark realism and stark use of lighting. It’s also unusual in that it recently came to light again after years of neglect. The British Royal Family has long held the painting (for almost 400 years), though it has lain unseen in a storeroom at Hampton Court for decades.
From the (UK) Telegraph:
Years of grime, varnishing and zealous over-painting to cover up damage convinced generations of art historians that it was of little merit. It was recently valued at “a few tens of thousands of pounds”, mainly because Charles I’s stamp was on the back.
The painting was bought by Charles I in 1637 and after being sold with most of the Royal Collection during the Commonwealth, it was re-acquired by Charles II.
Misattributed as a copy of a Caravaggio by an unknown hand, it was valued in thousands rather than millions.
The painting is taken from the scene in St Mark’s Gospel where Christ, with Peter and Andrew while they are fishing at the Sea of Galilee, says to them: “Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.” Unusually, Christ is shown without a beard. The Royal Collection has dated it to between 1603 and 1606 when Caravaggio worked in Rome.
(The restored painting is on the left.)
Technorati Tags: Calling of St Peter and Andrew, Caravaggio, faith in art
Tags: Calling of St Peter and Andrew, Caravaggio, faith in art
This week’s image is another Caravaggio. The painting is Supper at Emmaus (See Luke 24:13-35) from 1598. Caravaggio was an against-the-grain type of painter in that he refused to paint his subjects (particularly his religious subjects) using traditional conventions. Here, Christ is shown as a robust, un-haloed, well-fed, beardless young man. Unlike the artist’s Incredulity of St Thomas, in this painting he does not show the resurrected Christ with the marks of crucifixion.
(HT: Malaspina - Lecture on Baroque Art, Russell McNeil, PhD)
Technorati Tags: Caravaggio, faith in art, Supper at Emmaus
Tags: Caravaggio, faith in art, Supper at Emmaus
This piece by Caravaggio is David Victorious Over Goliath and currently hangs in the Prado in Madrid. Caravaggio was one of the original Baroque “painters of light” — long before Thomas Kincaid. His works typically make strong use of light and shadow.
He was a pretty wild individual, and may have killed two or three men in brawls. He fled Rome for Naples and Malta with a price on his head and died under mysterious circumstances after he was pardoned for his crimes.
Technorati Tags: Caravaggio, David Victorious Over Goliath, faith in art
Tags: Caravaggio, David Victorious Over Goliath, faith in art
Your bit o’ culture for the day is The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio, painted in about 1601. From the Web Gallery of Art:
This picture seems to belong to the same group as the second St Matthew and the Angel and The Sacrifice of Isaac because the same model reappears as the apostle at the apex of this composition. Like the first St Matthew and the Angel this picture belonged to Vincenzo Giustiniani and then entered the Prussian royal collection. Fortunately it was kept in Potsdam and so it survived the last war intact. This is the most copied painting of Caravaggio, 22 copies from the 17th century are known.
This drama of disbelief seems to have touched Caravaggio personally. Few of his paintings are physically so shocking - his Thomas pushes curiosity to its limits before he will say, ‘My Lord and my God.’ The classical composition carefully unites the four heads in the quest for truth. Christ’s head is largely in shadow, as He is the person who is the least knowable. He also has a beauty that had not been evident in the Mattei paintings of His arrest and appearance at Emmaus.
Technorati Tags: Caravaggio, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas
Tags: Caravaggio, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas
