lecture Michelangelo
In today’s lecture, we learned about
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s life and his work. Michelangelo Merisi da
Caravaggio was a drunk who was often in problems with the law. Fortunately, he
was a brilliant painter. He is well-known for painting powerful, dramatic
lighting settings.
Michelangelo
Meridian da Caravaggio was born in 1571 in Milan, Meridian. He and his family moved to a little town called Caravaggio in Northern Italian when he was little, that is the reason why people called him Caravaggio. Before Caravaggio went to Rome, he was trained as a painter in Milan. However there were already many artists at that period of time, making Caravaggio’s life very difficult. He was unnoticed and had no reputation, he didn't have enough money to hire a model, and could only sell his still life and self portrait painting in themarket to make a living.
Caravaggio, Basket of Fruit, c.1596-1601
The Basket of Fruit is one of the paintings that interests me. This painting is very realistic, the fruits and the basket is painted in great detail, including all the rotten parts on the fruits. This can be a symbolism for fading beauty, showing that everything will eventually decay. Some scholars also think that there is a connection between the church and the basket of fruit, describing the rotten fruit as a metaphor for the decaying church.
Bacchus is another painting that interests me
and offers me some ideas on the theme Earthly Delight. The subject of the
painting is a youthful and handsome boy dressed up as Bacchus, the Greek god of
wine, fertility and theater. There is also a basket with bursting fruits and
rotting apples, once again Caravaggio uses these elements to bring out the idea
that youth and pleasure are short-lived, everything will eventually die and
rot. The similarity in both paintings inspires me that humans are always
looking for Earthly delights, but these desires are like a bottomless hole, no
matter how enjoyable the Earthly delights are, they will eventually fade away.
David with the Head of Goliath
Reference
Scott, D. et al. (2022) A closer look at basket of fruit by Michelangelo Caravaggio, Draw Paint Academy. Available at: https://drawpaintacademy.com/basket-of-fruit/ (Accessed: February 14, 2023).
Artincontext (2022) "Bacchus" by Caravaggio - analyzing the famous painting of dionysus, artincontext.org. Available at: https://artincontext.org/bacchus-by-caravaggio/ (Accessed: February 14, 2023).
Caravaggio, A. (2022) David with the head of Goliath by Caravaggio, Galerie Borghèse. Available at: https://borghese.gallery/collection/paintings/david-with-the-head-of-goliath.html (Accessed: February 14, 2023).
Perspective. (2020, May 21). Caravaggio: The Murderous Artist Who Died In Mystery (Waldemar Januszczak Documentary) | Perspective [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxLmP27-3Bc
Remember, this artist is known as Caravaggio - Michelangelo is a very common Italian name and there is another VERY famous painter known as Michelangelo.
ReplyDeleteIn the lecture, it was broken down into different parts. You can do that with your notes too. Talk about his early life and the work he made then, go on to talk about his fame and success and the work he made in this period. Then finally talk about his self- destructive nature and how this affected his work - it became dark and brooding, it was made when he was on the run for murder.
Include images of his work to illustrate your text as well and REFERENCES too!