Caravaggio and stuff

Piazza del Popolo

The gates here were one of the main entrances to Rome.  The via Flaminia was a major road leading into Rome from the north and dates back to antiquity.  Pilgrims used the road to reach the city.  The triumphal arch is in the middle of the Aurelian wall and built at the end of the 16^th century.  The gates are flanked by Peter and Paul.  The doors would have been closed when pilgrims arrived and the pilgrims would have to pay taxes to pass through the gates to enter the city.  The piazza was the first sight the pilgrims had of the city.  This section of Rome, the Campus Martius, remained populated during the Middle Ages because the aqueduct, the Acqua Vergine, remained operational.

The obelisk in the center of the piazza was re-uplifted here in the 1580’s by Sixtus V who wanted to redesign the city with an urban plan-renovazione urbis.  This particular obelisk was important and dates from antiquity.  It is one of two obelisks from the Circus Maximus-the other is at St. John Lateran-and would have marked the ends of the spine of the circus.  The obelisk is made from a single piece of granite and was transported to Rome whole as a spoil of war.  

During the Middle Ages the Circus Maximus turned into a lake due to its low profile and approximation to the Tiber.  Sixtus V, thinking there might be something there, had the lake drained and rediscovered the obelisks.  He had the obelisk re-uplifted at Piazza del Popolo which connected axially with other obelisks in the city- at St. John’s, at St. Peter’s, at the Spanish Steps, at Santa Maria Maggiore.  The obelisks recreated the spine of the circus referencing Rome itself as a circus.  Sixtus V had the obelisk capped with a bronze cross indicating Christianity’s superiority over the ancients and marking the continuation of the ancient imperial governments.

The far edge of the piazza is executed in a tridentine design with three streets heading off into different yet important, parts of Rome: Via Ripeta heads to St. Peters, Via Baubino leads to Santa Maria Maggiore and then to St. John’s, and Via Lata leads to the Campodoligo, the civic center of Rome.  Bernini designed two churches for that end of the piazza, Santa Maria in Montesanto and Santa Maria dei Miracoli.  The two churches, with their classical pediments and domes, are a synthesis of St. Peter’s and the Pantheon combining the ancient with the modern.  Each church has three entrances referencing the three streets, as well as the three entrances to the piazza through the Porto del Popolo.

Santa Maria del Popolo was the first church pilgrims would see as they entered the city.  It was the legendary location of Nero’s grave and early Christians put a church here to dispel evil spirits by sanctifying the ground.  In 1660 a celebration was held for Queen Christina of Sweden who had made a pilgrimage to Rome after converting to Catholicism.  Bernini had restored the arch and the church in honor of the celebration, which was also staged by Bernini.

Neo-Platonism-during the Renaissance Plato’s Ideals evolved to coincide with the thinking of the day.  The Ideals become fragmented as they travel through the universe from heaven to earth.  Once on earth the scatter so humanity can only see a fragment of the truth.  The human soul went through a similar process.  As it leaves heaven, the soul loses its memory of the ideal place but it regains that memory after it leaves the body and returns to god.

Transition-The end of the 16^th and beginning of the 17^th centuries was a time of transition between the Renaissance and the Baroque, which might be said to be a response to Protestantism-the Counter-Reformation.  1600 was a jubilee year and Rome expected two million visitors-pilgrims-to crowd her streets.  Churches throughout the city were refurbished and embellished.  This was fortunate for a young artist named Michelangelo Merisi whom we know as Caravaggio.

Caravaggio arrived in Rome in the 1590’s under the patronage of the marquise Colone.  He lived with another artist, Arpino, who was commissioned to pain the inside of St. Peter’s dome.  Caravaggio assisted Arpino and studied still lifes.  He was discovered by Cardinal del Monte who commissioned early paintings by Caravaggio.  The Justiniani Family, neighbors of del Monte, also started commissioning paintings from Caravaggio.  Caravaggio received his first public commission from Cardinal Matteo Contaerelli for the family chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi which was being embellished along with the other churches for the Jubilee year of 1600.  The chapel was dedicated to St. Matthew and Caravaggio made a series of three paintings for the chapel.

Calling of St. Matthew-Three figures point to Matthew, a tax collector living at the customs house, who is sitting in the back of a tavern; Christ points rather emphatically at Matthew, his arm following the shaft of light (or Christ is responsible for the light), Matthew responding to the gesture by pointing to himself, and finally Peter, standing next to Christ mimics his gesture but less emphatically, his fingers in a priestly blessing formation.  The hand of Christ is Michelangelo’s hand of Adam from the Sistine ceiling-recalling that Christ is the new Adam.  The light enters the room from the right emphasizing the reading of the painting from Right to left giving it a linearity of narrative like a history painting.  Caravaggio divided the painting in half recalling Michelangelo on the right and Leonardo on the left; the figures in the painting react much like the figures in Leonardo’s Last Supper.  The figures closest to Christ are the most animated while the ones furthest away are not involved in the scene at all.  Overall the painting is calm and tranquil.

Martyrdom of Saint Matthew-A more violent painting it is juxtaposed with the tranquility of the Calling of Saint Matthew.  The figures are placed in a circular formation based on a wheel referencing the continuation of time.  There is energy in this painting as if the artist was present and captured the moment as it occurred-this is the concept of energeia, a rhetorical figure of speech, rhetorical verrissitude.  The Ignudi in this piece are neophytes-those awaiting baptism.  Matthew is shown falling into the baptismal font as if he were falling into a tomb, which is what this chapel was.

Altar Piece-St. Matthew with the Angel-Matthew is writing his gospel while receiving inspiration from an angel.  This is the second version Caravaggio painted, the first was rejected because Matthew was depicted as illiterate with his hand being guided by the angel and it was unseemly that an illiterate man could write the gospel.  In this version, the angel is dictating the gospel to Matthew and giving him the human ancestry of Christ which would be recalled by the elevated host.

 

Madonna of Loreto was created for the Caveletti family and dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto.  In the depiction, the Madonna and child are at her home and receiving pilgrims-an anachronistic image.  Mary is crossing her legs as if she is turning to go back inside and taking the child to his destiny.  This is showing her in movement.  Her hand is holding the child exactly where his future wound will be.  Christ’s face is obscured, hidden in the shadows; his awareness of his future sacrifice is hidden.  There is tension in the image, the red velvet of Mary’s dress represents the blood of Christ and she is being portrayed as a priestess, delivering her son to his sacrifice.  Caravaggio took into consideration the precise location of the painting and the architecture immediately surrounding the chapel; the painting is illuminated from the lower left side as if it were receiving its light from the church door opening.

Boy with a Basket of Fruit-This is a suggestive and sensuous painting similar to Titian’s “Flora.”

This is an early painting of Caravaggio’s and it represents where his talent lay, which was not on the human form.  From Pliny’s Natural History:  "The story runs that Parrhasios and Zeuxis entered into competition, Zeuxis exhibiting a picture of some grapes so true to nature that the birds flew up to the wall of the stage.  Parrhasios then displayed a picture of a linen curtain, realistic to such a degree that Zeuxis, elated by the verdict of the birds, cried out that now at least his rival must draw the curtain and show his picture.  On discovering his mistake he surrendered the prize to Parrhasios, admitting candidly that he had deceived the birds, while Parrhasios had deluded himself, a painter.  After this we learn that Zeuxis painted a boy carrying grapes, and when the birds flew down to settle on them, he was vexed with his own work, and came forward saying, with like frankness, 'I have painted the grapes better than the boy, for had I been perfectly successful with the latter, the birds must have been afraid.' " Caravaggio recreates the painting by Zeuxis-by way of Ekphrasis-and in doing so acknowledges where his ability is limited, the fruit is incredible, the boy not so much.

Sick Baccus-This is a self-portrait and a contemporary of The Boy with a Basket of Fruit.  In this work Caravaggio is imitating Michelangelo and his sculpture of Baccus.  He is attempting to prove the superiority of painting by transforming Baccus into a young man who is quite ill, something which sculpture could not accomplish.  Baccus’ green pallor could be easily represented in paint but not in marble.  

Baccus is also a very sensuous painting.  He is definitely aware of the viewer and seems to be offering not only his grapes to the viewer but offering himself as well-his red ribbon just asking to be untied.

Palafenieri Madonna-The three figures in this painting, St. Anne, the Virgin Mary, and the Christ Child, represent the genealogy of Christ and his humanity.  Christ is again being shown as the New Adam and here he is redeeming the sin of Adam by killing the snake.  He is also touching his future side wound as is the Virgin Mary.

 

David Holding the Head of Goliath-This is another self-portrait but this one is rather penitent.  Caravaggio had killed a man-the details aren’t important-and was exiled from Rome.  He was desperate to return and pleaded with a cardinal friend of his to help him try to receive clemency from the pope.  As a way of showing his sorrow for his deeds, he sent this painting as a calling card to the cardinal showing that he was repentant; one of Goliath’s eyes is already dead and the other stares directly at the viewer begging for forgiveness.  This is actually a double self-portrait showing a young and an older Caravaggio; the young man holding the head of the older man also represents the passage of time.