dimanche 30 mars 2014

Two Italian Painters Of Renown

By Darren Hartley


Early Caravaggio paintings were paintings of flowers and fruits, including Boy Peeling a Fruit, also known to be the earliest of Caravaggio paintings, Boy with a Basket of Fruit and Young Sick Bacchus. They demonstrated physical particularity, an aspect of Caravaggio realism, for which he became famous for.

An Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily, Michelangelo Merisi o Amerighi da Caravaggio painted The Fortune Teller, the first of Caravaggio paintings with more than one figure. Its theme consisted of Mario Minniti, a 16 year old Sicilian artist, being cheated by a Gypsy girl. The theme was quite new for Rome and became immensely influential over the next century and thereafter.

More psychologically complex Caravaggio paintings include The Cardsharps, showing a boy as a falling victim to card cheats, and considered the first true Caravaggio masterpiece. The following Caravaggio paintings became the center of dispute among scholars and biographers for their homoerotic ambiance. These were The Musicians, The Lute Player, a tipsy Bacchus and Boy Bitten by a Lizard.

An emergence of remarkable spirituality was shown in the first Caravaggio paintings on religious themes. These paintings, including Penitent Magdalene, Saint Catherine, Martha and Mary Magdalene, Judith Beheading Holofernes, Sacrifice of Isaac, Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy and Rest on the Flight into Egypt, featured the return of Caravaggio to realism.

Raphael paintings celebrated perfection and grace with serene and harmonious qualities. Raphael Sanzio was an Italian High Renaissance painter and architect. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he formed the traditional trinity of great masters of the period.

Raphael's early years in Umbria, a 4 year period absorbing Florence's artistic traditions and his last hectic and triumphant 12 years in Rome consisted the 3 phases and 3 styles into which Raphael paintings naturally fall into.

The technique behind the early Raphael paintings was the application of thick paint, made possible with the use of an oil varnish medium, in shadows and darker garments and the application of thin paint on flesh areas. This technique is very evident in a brilliant self-portrait drawing that showed the precocious talent of Raphael.

The Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino was the first documented work among Raphael paintings. In the following years, Raphael paintings consisted of painted works for other churches. Among these large works, some done in fresco, are the Mond Crucifixion, the Brera Wedding of the Virgin and Oddi Altarpiece.

During the period, there can be found, small and exquisite cabinet Raphael paintings. The Three Graces and St. Michael are among these works. The beginning of Raphael paintings of Madonna and portraits can also be attributed to the same period.




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