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The last crimes of Caravaggio
- pvg 3y agohttps://archive.is/bDovV https://archive.is/bDovV
- neonate 3y agohttp://web.archive.org/web/20240327160052/https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/art-design/2024/03/the-last-crimes-of-caravaggio http://web.archive.org/web/20240327160052/https://www.newsta...
- huytersd 3y agoCaravaggio was my favorite artist with the chiaroscuro style when I was naive about art and he still is now when I’m not.
- david927 3y agogreat comment! I think Caravaggio is an artist's artist. Come for the drama and tenebrism, stay for the unbridled genius.
- ramijames 3y agoThis was an excellent article! He's one of my favorite painters. Such depth and emotion. It's so fun to know more about how awful an actual person he was. Super cool that all of this information is still accessible 400 years later.
- ilikeitdark 3y agoOne of my favorite painter. Deserves a film or limited series. Only if done well and with accuracy, which may be near impossible.
- ecocentrik 3y agoThere is a decent film by Derik Jarman, Caravaggio (1986) with Sean Bean and Tilda Swinton.
- Daub 3y agoI think I was an extra on that movie. I say 'think' and Derik never told me what movie he was shooting. Good times.
- osullivj 3y agoDo tell, says this Caravaggio, el Greco and Beccafumi obsessive...
- Daub 3y agoSo... Derek Jarman had a studio in one of the old warehouses alongside the thames before it became the yupified, soulless nonsence it is now. I was an artist but also modelled frequently for other artists and art schools (not unusual for a young artist). DJ was in the process of producing Caravaggio, and I heard through a freind that DJ was looking for models not shy about being 'au naturel' in front of the camera. The shoot required that I dance naked, together with many other guys, at night around a large fire, located in an empty lot next to his studio. I know that his Caravagio movie was in production (or development) and being openly discussed at the time and this was part of my motivation behind accepting the (unpaid) gig. However, from my single viewing of the movie, I cannot recal seeing any such scene. There are plenty of similar scenes in his movie Sebastian, but the dates don't work out. It's concievable that he was just shooting one of his off the cuf experimental works... who knows. The shoot itself was a bit chaotic. Most of the other guys there were gay and up for a party..., Very frisky. As a young straight lad, I was a bit freaked out, but Derik himself was a complete gentleman, and also very protective of me. Needless to say I did not return. However, I maintain very fond memories of DJ. He had a wiked sence if humour and was evidently a man a great humanity. I do recal towards the end of the evening seeing him cry. Maybe it was because of the stress of the shoot, or maybe because of health issues (he was diagnosed HIV+ around that time but my memory of the dates is fuzzy). He was part of a London that no longer exists... Punk, alternative, pre-yuppy. Much missed.
- bbkane 3y agoI recommend the Caravaggio episodes of https://artholespodcast.com/ https://artholespodcast.com/ to everyone! Michael Anthony does a REALLY good job contextualizing Caravaggios crazy actions and giving a "window" into life in Italy then.
- jdmoreira 3y agoI recommend the episodes about his life on the History on Fire podcast. This guy was WILD
- lazide 3y agoJesus Christ does that website have a shit ton of trackers. 321 ‘partners with access to fine geolocation’?!?
- somat 3y agoAnd the icing on the cake is how it starts with a modal dialog headlined "We value your privacy"
- pluc 3y agoStop using Javascript on the Internet and you'll find yourself back in 1998. Advertisers, marketers and front-end devs have ruined it. Only selectively allow each JS source, fuck them.
- _zagj 3y agoHis erratic behavior may have been attributable to heavy metal poisoning, especially lead, much of which came from his paints: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jun/16/caravaggio-italy-remains-ravenna-art https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jun/16/caravag...
- Daub 3y agoI have heard the same thing (wrongly) said of Van Gogh, whose poor mental condition towards the end of his life was almost certainly caused by syphilis. This is not to underplay the impact of poisonous paints: the entire cadmium range (cadmium red and yellow), Naples yellow ( lead antimonate), Flake white (lead again). For more horrors, check out the book artist beware. Looking at the article you linked, the evidence for Caravaggio's death by lead poisoning does indeed seem conclusive. However, IMO it almost certainly was not through the use of paint itself, but from the careless manufacture of paint. In those days, most painters made their own paint by mixing powder pigment with oil. Powdered lead pigments is 100 times more dangerous than pigment locked into an oil emulsion. A dear artist friend of mine died as a result of their art. God bless you Jim where ever you are.
- happytiger 3y agoCheers to Jim!
- languagehacker 3y agoMy favorite painter! I highly recommend Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane by Andrew Graham-Dixon. That and the Derek Jarman film (as referenced by others) provide valuable insight into his grandiose and self-destructive behavior, along with the patronage system that allowed him countless second chances until he managed to burn every bridge available to him. Michelangelo Merisi teaches us a great lesson on the precariousness of talent mixed with recklessness.
- m463 3y agoI looked at his work here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio his medusa kind of reminds me of joseph ducreaux: https://www.openculture.com/2021/12/the-eccentric-self-portraits-of-18th-century-painter-joseph-ducreux.html https://www.openculture.com/2021/12/the-eccentric-self-portr... (without the blood)
- thecupisblue 3y agoI always heard about Caravaggio from books and Internet, finding his paintings "ok, realistic, cool for the time, skilfully made". Then I saw a few live. The chiaroscuro theatre of shadow and light, the insane details, the dynamic of each painting, the mastery it takes to reproduce such art pieces, it all humbled me as an artist in a way I did not expect. This man had such an insane talent, vision and skill to produce some of these paintings, their harshness matching his lifestyle. If you have a chance to see some of his works in person, go for it, it will definitely pay off.
- happytiger 3y agoYes you are describing my experience exactly. This art is one of those arts that looks nice in photos and is just impactful (?) in person. Like, movingly painted somehow? It is emotionally arresting. He has captured something of the human spirit in some of his work. Well said.
- squeedles 3y agoHad to make an account just to reply that I had a similar experience with Thomas Cole. Saw a showing of “Course of Empire” and was astonished. Looking at a photo can’t prepare you for the impact of a wall-sized painting crammed with magnifying glass-sized details.
- wahnfrieden 3y agomonitors also do not reproduce much color spectrum that is apparent in painting situated in a room
- hodgesrm 3y agoThis. I had the same feeling on seeing The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in the Prado. [0] It's one thing to see the painting in a book. It's another thing to turn the corner into a room and see the full 20 square foot landscape in front of you. (It's still one of my favorite paintings of all time.) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triumph_of_Death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triumph_of_Death
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- Arkhaine_kupo 3y agoOh the article misses one of the best bits about his lifestyle. The man run what essentially was a beautiful scam on churches. He was comissioned to paint saint and virgins. He would use local prostitutes as models (it is mentioned in the article he was condemed for the murder of a pimp). So when the paintings were presented to the church, the locals (and sometimes even the priests) would recognise the models and there would be some uproar of using the likeness of a streetwalker to paint the virgin mary. So the painting would get removed and most of the time a private owner (sometimes higher ups in the church) would buy them for their personal collection. Too scandalous for the public, but perfect for my own palace. There was a very famous incident of this where he painted Mary's death. Usually this is a very holy moment in Christianity and it's painted as such. Caravaggio did not. He painted it in a dirty tent, in a very human way with her passing away. This was Strike One. Secondly he modeled the death after a famous body that was retrived from the river in Rome, a girl had drowned and tons of people had seen her lifeless body be pulled out of the water, and they could now see that same girl being virgin mary. Strike Two. And the last strike was that the woman was not any girl, but one of the most famous prostitutes of the city and one seen very regularly with Caravaggio. Painting your ex gf prostitute who died unceremonoiously drowned as the holyest figure outside of christ was a big issue at the time. The painting however is still gorgeous and would urge anyone travelling to Paris (in the Louvre) to go see it. Not as "another virgin" painting, which you will find infinite Madonna paintings in Europe. But as one of the first paintings not sanctifying her death and as a sad goodbye from Caravaggio to someone important to him
- nerdponx 3y agoWikipedia tells me that this is also the last major depiction of her death as death, rather than "assumption", which I find kind of interesting.
- michaelsbradley 3y agoDormition versus Assumption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormition_of_the_Mother_of_God#Dormition_versus_Assumption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormition_of_the_Mother_of_God...
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- greenie_beans 3y agowatch derek jarman's 'caravaggio'
- huytersd 3y agoGenuinely trying not to be an ass but is it significantly “gayer” than Caravaggio’s life actually was?
- greenie_beans 3y agodunno how gay caravaggio's life was, but yes, jarman's depiction is gay. and great.
- anurag_pandey 3y agohacker news is very fast
- eszed 3y agoI get that they're ginning up excitement with "Caravaggio's last painting was a murder scene!", but it's a bit of a schtick. As pointed out in TFA it was a commission, and so not exactly a "personal" painting. Furthermore, at the time of his death, Caravaggio was headed back towards Rome, with a pardon all but assured. He wouldn't have been painting Saint Ursula under a premonition of death. If you want to see what was on his mind a few years earlier, when he really was in fear for his life, look at some of what he painted then: a Judith Beheading Holofernes; two Salomes With the Head of John the Baptist; a Beheading of John the Baptist (the only painting he ever signed - in the blood dripping from the evangelist's neck!); and, most memorably, David Holding the Head of Goliath, in which Caravaggio gives the severed head his own features. How metal is that?