Why is Caravaggio (1571-1610) so fascinating? Cinemas have just released the French-Italian co-production Caravaggio's shadow, directed by Michele Placido; he Ecce Homo from Madrid, a painting whose ownership is still in the hands of the lawyers, should see the light of day in the coming months; The Capodimonte Museum in Naples lent this summer, not without some controversy, among others, the paintings of the Lombard genius to the Louvre; the Salome with the head of the Baptist has finally found a definitive space in the new gallery of the Royal Collections of Madrid and even El Prado exhibits the restoration of David conquers Goliath. This work has its particular mystery caravaggesque. Nobody knows how it got to the Madrid art gallery.
What is behind the Italian master's canvases that generate so much interest? A tragic life, the revolution in painting, his sexuality, violence or that he transformed prostitutes into virgins? “It's a bit of all that. His work is timeless and touches the essence of the human being, by using real models, and this connects with the 21st century,” reflects David García, head of Italian painting at the Prado Museum. “Without forgetting his bisexuality or a somewhat premature death for the life expectancy of the 17th century.” This is the explanation academic. Walking the Roman streets those days when the painter lived was different. The Lombard was an extraordinary painter, only surpassed by the divine Michelangelo (with whom he would measure his entire life), rejected and admired by the Church and a murderer. During the 14 years (1592-1606) that he spent in Rome—until he killed the criminal Ranuccio Tomassoni in a duel—he faced countless bloody disputes. But, far from stereotypes, he was never a crazy, but a man from the 17th century—where honor and courage surpassed painting—cornered in a violent society. Not even prostitutes appeased the tension of existing.
“Liar, lazy, slut. I'm going to throw a fucking potty in your face! Let the executioner fuck you and put it up your ass!” These insults – preserved by the State Archives of Rome and recorded by the writer Andrew Graham-Dixon in his biography – are directed at a courtesan, by the artist, who in 1602 did not want to sleep with him. He was brought before the judge for assault. He disfigured the prostitute with the sfregio. A revenge which consisted of lacerating the face with a knife. Years later—in Naples—Caravaggio suffered the same punishment, from which he survived, once again, as one of the many miracles that he illuminated on canvas throughout a life of 39 years.
Left behind was his time, at a very young age, in the studies of Simone Peterzano, Antiveduto Gramatica or Cavaliere d'Arpino. He barely learned to mix colors. Caravaggio was self-taught and used a group of courtesan-models. Procurer? Maybe that would explain his erratic nightlife. He had two favorites: Fillide Melandroni (who had posed as the Cupcake; Judith and Holofernes and the Saint Catherine from the Thyssen collection in Madrid, and Martha and Maria Magdalena) and Anna Bianchini (short, redhead, who appears in the Penitent Magdalene and Rest in the flight to Egypt). Both were prostituted by their mothers.
The master painted from the darkness towards the light – an idea taken from some 16th century Lombard painters – and left the backgrounds black, with this he focused the action, the mind, in a sequence, a frame. It introduced the viewer, far from distractions, into the scene. Without that added work, he was also able to produce faster. He fitted images together and used black to hide the connecting spaces. Painting was isolating. He used incisions (traced with the handle of the brush) to locate where the models would be the next day. And he used to hang a light source from the ceiling in order to create the contrasts of his famous gloom. He also turned to mirrors. The result was so real that was overwhelming.
But the birth of the legend is linked to the decoration of the Contarelli chapel in San Luigi dei Francesci, in Rome. His first public assignment and a great responsibility for someone who is 29 years old. He had to go from 1.5 meter canvases to more than three meters wide and long. The paintings—he finished the work on July 4, 1600—were a success. He charged 400 scudi for representing two passages from the life of Saint Matthew (The vocation and The martyrdom).
Between carnival and lent
It was the beginning of caravagism. Neither Ribera, nor Rembrandt, nor Georges de La Tour can be understood without these canvases. nor, nor, the (current) interest in the painter's sexuality. “Modern notions of sexual identification make no sense when applied to the 17th century, with its own interpretations of punishable social behavior,” reflects Keith Christiansen, one of the great experts on Lombardy. “It is documented that he had some type of relationship with women. His intimacy with men remains pure speculation. He was never accused of sodomy.” Of course, he continued painting. But between 1603 and 1606 only three orders arrived. Caravaggio was restless. Until a black background fell. On May 28, 1606, he severed the femoral artery, in a duel, with the pimp Tomassoni. He bled to death. He soon dictated a capital side. Anyone in the Papal States could kill him and obtain the reward.
At that moment, Caravaggio began a flight (with his model—and lover?—Cecco), which only stopped when he died in Porto Ercole—80 kilometers from the Italian capital—on July 18 or 19, 1610. It remains to be seen explain the escape. He took refuge in the Alban mountains (Rome), traveled to Naples (protected by Constanza Colonna and her son Fabrizio), when he was already considered the best painter in Italy; He went, in full success, to Malta (1607), where he left the impressive Decapitation of San Juan in its oratory, and managed to be ordained a knight of Magistral Obedience.
However, hostage to his character, he attacked Count Della Vezza, a knight of Justice. Although, again, he managed to escape, this time from a rock prison, perhaps with the help of the Colonna, in October 1608, to Syracuse (Sicily). The following year he was back in Naples and stayed at the Palazzo Colonna in Chiaia. He must have, then, painted the Ecce Homo from Madrid. A premonition. He was soon overtaken at the Osteria del Cerriglio, a mixture of tavern and brothel, by, among others, Della Vezza, and he was crippled. Still without recovering, he traveled to Rome, with several paintings, on a felucca. He side capital had, at last, been revoked; But, he fell ill and never arrived at his destination.
Centuries of oblivion passed. “He caravaggism It had a general impact although it only lasted one generation. When the historian Luigi Lanzi (1732-1810) studied the 17th century, the artist who seemed crucial to him was Annibale Carracci, not Caravaggio. And most contemporaries would have agreed,” clarifies Keith Christiansen. Meanwhile, the expert Bernard Berenson (1865-1959) argued that the fascination with the painter was a consequence more of his life than of his work. Did dying so young help create the myth? “For me, that data does not tell the story,” criticizes expert Nicola Spinosa. In Spain he was considered a good painter, but “far away”.
It was the historian Roberto Longhi (1890-1970) who recovered it from that dusty window of looking through art and the past. In 1951 he organized the first exhibition on the genius in the Royal Palace of Milan. The black and white photos reveal the question, “who is this Caravaggio?” Works that today would never leave the churches that house them moved on rags, the lintels are saved thanks to the skill of some workers (more like peasants), who do not even wear gloves and put their hands on the canvases. “Forgetting is logical, tastes change over the centuries. Murillo does not reappear until the 19th century in France,” comments a historian, who requests anonymity. And she adds: “Longhi's merit is understanding that he was one of the best and was poorly studied.” Furthermore, the themes of his painting are current: the dignity of the poor, injustice and the redemption of man. A unique life between carnival and Lent, between the Church and the brothel. The construction of a contemporary legend of the 17th century.
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