"Caravaggio in Rome" in five paintings: between friends and rivals

Drama, emotion, light, darkness, violence, murder... One only needs to pronounce the name Caravaggio and the words will come to mind.

The Paper learned that "Between Friends and Rivals: Caravaggio in Rome" was recently exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in the United States. Caravaggio's 14 years in Rome were sought after painters and moody brawlers. He was highly regarded among the church and aristocracy, but was also a frequent visitor to the local tavern, playing and painting with the notorious patrons.

Portrait of Caravaggio, circa 1621

Museum exhibitions, some of which are blockbuster, may shake the understanding of artists or art movements, and thus raise novel issues. Some are jewelry box-style, allowing the viewer to focus their attention on a few pieces. "Between Friends and Rivals: Caravaggio in Rome" is the latter, and the exhibition presents only five paintings, but it is enough to be visually striking.

Of the five paintings on display, two Caravaggio's works are on loan from the Detroit Institute of Art and the Kimbell Museum of Art. The other three are works by Caravaggio followers in the Art Institute of Chicago's collection. Known as the "Caravaggio School", these followers came to Rome from all over Europe to enthusiastically absorb the most striking features of Caravaggio's paintings and to show the variation of their personal artistic approach in the subject.

Two works that show Caravaggio's meticulousness

Caravaggio's life is intoxicating, dangerous and full of mysteries. "Caravaggio" is his nickname, a town about thirty kilometers from Milan. Around 1592, around the age of 20, Caravaggio began to make his mark in the Roman art scene and quickly gained a following for his unique style of painting. Using ordinary people as models to capture all their imperfections (wrinkles, dirty nails and tanned skin), he infuses dynamic compositions into his work and incorporates dramatic lighting effects inspired by strong chiaroscuro, which in Italy is called "chiaroscuro". Today, this enhanced form of chiaroscuro is known as "dark-toning," and its rise is attributed to Caravaggio.

The rarity of Caravaggio's extant work makes him even more fascinating. There are currently only 50 to 80 works in the world (the exact number is disputed by whether they belong to Caravaggio), seven of which are in the collection of museums in the United States, two of which are on display.

Caravaggio, Martha and Mary Magdalene, circa 1598, Detroit Institute of Arts

Martha and Mary Magdalene is one of two paintings depicting the moment of Mary Magdalene's spiritual awakening. Traditionally, Magdalene is portrayed as a prostitute, seen as a sinner in the Bible. Here, a light source representing God's grace seemed to illuminate her heart. To her left is the more devout sister Martha. Maria Magdalene's elegant garments, combs and powder boxes signify her past concern for vanity and beauty, superficial things that are considered contrary to the divine life. Convex mirrors were a luxury of the time and also hinted at the fallacy of her past life.

This type of religious half-body painting was not painted for public churches, but for private purposes. Caravaggio's greatest innovation was to portray biblical figures as if they belonged to Roman society at the time, and he based his studio models on 17th-century costumes for religious figures, as shown in the paintings.

Caravaggio, The Card Gambler, circa 1595, collection of the Kimbell Museum of Art

In another work, The Cardsharps, Caravaggio ventures into the tavern he knows well. A rich and naïve young man dressed in expensive black is in a card gamble, unaware of his opponent's deception. Caravaggio provided visual clues to the scam – two scammers dressed in fancy, mismatched clothes (more like theatrical costumes than everyday clothing), and the older man had a hole in his glove to allow him to touch the marked cards. The young crook reaches behind his back and waits for a hint from his accomplice to secretly swap out the cards hidden in his belt. He carried a dagger, a weapon that was illegal in Rome at the time.

The composition of the painting brings the viewer into action in the picture, a feature that captivated collectors and artists in Rome. The viewer becomes a participant in the deception, able to read clues ignored by the fooled young man and witness the trickery of gamblers.

Of all Caravaggio's works, the painting inspires the most reproductions and variations, but is rarely associated with the name Caravaggio; Instead, it is usually his more violent and dramatic works, such as his rendition of Judith the Chopped Off the Head of Holoveny (1598–1599). However, Solitaire Gambler, without violence or extreme dramatic light, allows us to see Caravaggio's level of superb detail and leave the audience clues about the nature of the scene. It also spawned a tavern-based setting filled with evil characters who were in games, banquets, and revelry.

Caravaggio's influence on later generations

Although the protagonist of the exhibition is Caravaggio, it is equally wonderful to admire the works of the "Caravaggio school" juxtaposed with it.

In 1599, Caravaggio was awarded a contract for the Kentarelli Chapel for the decoration of the Church of St. Louis the King, and after its completion in 1600 it immediately caused a sensation, especially among young Roman painters, and the "Caravaggio school" became a fashion pursued by every ambitious young painter.

Bartolomeo Manfredi, Critique of Cupid, 1613, Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago

The first generation of Caravaggio schools included the painters Giovanni Baglione and Orazio Gentileski. Later generations include Carlo Salacheni, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Francesco Buoneri.

Among them, Gentileski, despite being older than the others, was the only one of the schools to live until 1620, and he eventually became a court painter for King Charles I of England. His daughter Artemicia also studied Caravaggio's style.

Francesco Buoneri, Resurrection, circa 1619-1620, Art Institute of Chicago collection

Among the three Caravaggio works on display, an important highlight is The Resurrection, one of Caravaggio's closest followers, Francesco Buoneli. Buoneri was also one of Caravaggio's models. With its black background and highly exaggerated chiaroscuro, Resurrection perfectly demonstrates the influence of Caravaggio's groundbreaking style on followers. This influence is also seen in Giovanni Barglioni's The Ecstasy of Saint Francis. As one of the first artists directly inspired by Caravaggio, Barglioni used dramatic chiaroscuro to highlight the dynamic scenes of St. Francis throwing himself into the arms of angels. But later, after a notorious quarrel between the two artists, Bagioni turned from an admirer of Caravaggio to an antagonist.

Giovanni Barglioni, St. Francis' Ecstasy, 1601, Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago

Caravaggio lived a frantic life. Even in an era and place where disputes were commonplace, he gained notoriety for repeated fights, and his police records and interrogation records were transcribed in several pages. In 1606, probably unintentionally, he killed a young man named Lanuccio Tomasoni in a street fight and fled Rome in order to escape the death penalty. In 1610, on his way back to Rome, Caravaggio was wounded in a battle in Naples and died in Puerto del Corr, Porto.

There have always been different opinions about Caravaggio's death. The unexaggerated fact is that on July 28 an anonymous private news message sent from Rome to the ducal residence in Urbino said Caravaggio was dead. Three days later, another private news report said he had died of fever. These are the earliest death briefings, which were later reported in more detail. But no bodies have been found. A poet friend of Caravaggio has made 18 July his death date, and researchers recently claimed to have found an obituary that showed Caravaggio dying of fever that day in Puerto El Corrgio.

Caravaggio was almost completely discredited after his death. This is partly due to Giovanni Barglioni and Giovan Belori, the two earliest biographers, who did some devastating work to find fault. Bagionne was a painter with whom Caravaggio had a personal feud, and Bellori was an influential critic of the 17th century, Belori was not familiar with Caravaggio but was influenced by the French classicist painter Poussin, who did not know Caravaggio but hated his work.

It was not until the mid-20th century that Caravaggio's work was rediscovered and evaluated by art historians and the public, and his fascinating paintings and shining biography continue to arouse strong public interest to this day. It is undeniable that Caravaggio's influence on Baroque painting transcended the borders of Italy, directly or indirectly influencing artists such as the Spanish painter Huceppe de Ribeira. Joceppe de Ribeira was influenced by Caravaggio in Rome, and his painting St. Peter the Confessor (1628/32) clearly shows this with its light and deep emotion falling from the sky.

Jucepe de Ribeira, St. Peter the Confessional, 1628/1632, Collection of the Institute of Art of Chicago

Around the five works at the heart of the exhibition, more than a dozen Spanish and Italian works also hang, many of which show Caravaggio's influence and can be seen as an extension of "between friend and rival".

Note: The exhibition will last until December 31. THIS ARTICLE IS COMPILED FROM THE WEBSITE OF THE INSTITUTE OF ARCADE, NEWCITYART, ETC.