Michelangelo da Caravaggio. Félix Witting

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      Whilst a recurrent theme in Nordic art, prior to Caravaggio’s work it was only seen in Italian art in a painting by Carpaccio, now in the Ferrara Gallery, and in another by Salvo d’Antonio as part of an altarpiece for the Cathedral in Messina. Caravaggio endowed his work with a great magnificence, without for one moment suppressing his talent for expressing grief and pain in the most energetic way. These apostles, who are mourning the Virgin, are rough, rustic fellows, and the holy woman, who is sitting on a wooden chair at the foot of the bed, is a maid of humble origin. They express their feelings in the natural manner of simple beings; without measure and without beauty. Their profound grief is completely honest in its representation. Caravaggio achieved this narrative art through the careful modelling of the figures, which, surpassing the expression of all his previous works, indicate the future evolution of his painting. Despite the apparent irrationality in the composition, his work demonstrates a spatial depth was achieved that, for the first time in his artwork, seems to be a conscious choice. The body of the Virgin, which has been laid diagonally from left to right, drawing the eye to the furthest planes of the painting, helps to create this sense of depth. This impact is reinforced by the young girl seated in the foreground, who, acting as a foil for this complex composition, highlights Caravaggio’s new insights into the determining factors in the composition of an image, despite their tentativeness at this stage. An enormous curtain, almost like a velarium, which stretches across the shaded upper part of the image, also gives a certain depth to the painting. Far from decorative in intention, as the Bolognese School used such a motif, the drapery lends the work an aura of great gravity. Its deep red, with variations of lighter and darker shades, makes the colour range of the lower parts, which are placed in bright light or chiaroscuro, livelier and more charming partially through the thick application of the pigments. The brethren of Santa Maria della Scala also refused The Death of the Virgin because, to represent the Virgin, the painter used the portrait of a courtesan. In addition, the “bloated” corpse of the Virgin was deemed “too human”, and the copper bowl full of vinegar for washing the body did not convince them. However, no less a painter than Peter Paul Rubens recognised the significance of the painting; he is said to have persuaded the Duke of Mantua to buy it.[53]

      Yet at no time did Caravaggio abandon the manner of painting which he had developed, and he pursued with perseverance his search for original aesthetic concepts. Although he was obliged to rework all his canvases because of the religious reservations of his patrons, his artistic faith remained unaltered and his submission was only superficial.

      At the beginning of the year 1600, when Giordano Bruno was tortured in Rome, Caravaggio’s manner was still being developed, and the first signs of his subversive attitude towards the religious institutions which then dominated the eternal city were already perceptible. During the Counter-Reformation, Pope Clement VIII, taken by a violent desire for order and repression, decided to “clean” the streets of Rome and undertook a series of measures against street gatherings, gaming, the carrying of weapons and prostitution. It was precisely during this period that Caravaggio painted the “profane” works which brought him renown and which he populated with people he had met in the streets. In this climate of religious repression, it is difficult to have a precise idea of the painter’s convictions, even more so as the pope had recently removed from a church an altarpiece on which a representation of Saint Catherine of Alexandria had offended him.

      Nevertheless, the painter did not abandon his mission to renew the style of painting at the risk of going against the jurisdiction of the religious authorities. The work of this rationalist Naturalist expressed the mysteries and miracles of Christianity in the way that many artists have represented the gods of pagan classicism. The more important the transcendental content of the events and stories experienced by biblical characters, the less the painter had recourse to traditional religious symbols. The Penitent Magdalene painted in 1596–1597, one of his first religious works, illustrates Caravaggio’s pictorial choices. Far from the traditional representations which set Mary Magdalene in the desert, he places the young woman, not undressed but richly clothed, in a dark interior traversed by a ray of light, and places on the ground a small perfume bottle and next to it, as a symbol of the material wealth from which she will progressively turn away, some scattered jewellery. Contrary to the sculpture in wood by Donatello that one can see СКАЧАТЬ