Book Description
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610) has long been recognized as one of the great innovators in the history of art. Through detailed analysis of paintings from his early Roman period, 1594–1602, this study now situates his art firmly within both its humanistic and its scientific context. Here, both his revolutionary painterly techniques—pronounced naturalism and dramatic chiaroscuro—and his novel subject matter—still-life compositions and genre scenes—are finally put into their proper cultural and contemporary environment. This environment included the contemporary rise of empirical scientific observation, a procedure—like Caravaggio’s naturalism—committed to a close study of the phenomenal world. It also included the interests of his erudite, aristocratic patrons, influential Romans whose tastes reflected the Renaissance commitment to humanistic studies, emblematic literature and classical lore. The historical evidence entered into the record here includes both contemporary writings addressing the instructive purposes of art and the ancient literary sources commonly manipulated in Caravaggio’s time that sanctioned a socially realistic art. The overall result of this investigation is characterize the work of the painter as an expression of "learned naturalism."
About the Author
John F. Moffitt, Professor Emeritus of Art History, New Mexico State University, lives in Las Cruces. He is most recently the author of The Islamic Design Module in Latin America (2004) and translator and editor of Andrea Alciati’s A Book of Emblems (2004).
Caravaggio in Context: Learned Naturalism and Renaissance Humanism FROM THE PUBLISHER
Michelangelo Mersi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) was one of the great innovators in the history of art. Through an analysis of paintings from his early Roman period, 1594-1602, this study situates his art within its humanistic and scientific contexts. Both his revolutionary techniques - pronounced naturalism and dramatic chiaroscuro - and his novel subject matter - still lifes and genre scenes - are viewed in their proper contemporary environment.
SYNOPSIS
Moffitt (art history, New Mexico State U.) finds that the well known tenebrismo (shadow style), also called chiaroscuro (light plus dark) in the work of Italian painter Michaelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573-1610) to be a conflation of then standard topics, and the dark or melancholic temperament and visage then being attributed to the impassioned creative personality. The artist was thoroughly grounded, he says, in the humanist milieu of his erudite and at times witty patrons. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Art & Photography
Book Info
