Week 8- Baroque Art

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 The Entombment of Christ


Caravaggio, Bacchus, 1603-04, The Entombment of Christ, Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City.

Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, also known as Caravaggio, spent the majority of his career in Rome. During his lifetime, his violent actions brought him more fame than his works of art. Like his paintings, he had a very dramatic life and is thought of committing serious crimes more than once during his life. He passed away at the age of 38 in Tuscany, under unknown circumstances. His most well-known pieces of art include Sick Bacchus, The Musicians, The Conversion of St. Paul, The Entombment of Christ, and The Beheading of St. John.

Caravaggio committed to painting two major paintings for the side walls of the Contarelli Chapel of San Luigi dei Francesi, the French church in Rome, on July 23, 1599. His sponsor Cardinal del Monte, whose connections to the Medici meant that he had intimate ties to the French society in Rome, was able to get the commission for him. The Vatican Museum is home to one of the world's largest collections of art, but it only has one Caravaggio work. A stunningly realistic illustration of Christ being lowered into his tomb is presented in The Entombment of Christ.  Caravaggio visited Loreto, Italy, to do research for a huge altarpiece on the topic of the Madonna of Loreto following the libel trial. At the beginning of 1604, he made his way back to Rome and moved into rented quarters in the Vicolo di Santa Cecilia e Biagio.

Art Elements


Exactly what the Council of Trent had in mind when it called for a new kind of Catholic Counter-Reformation art that everyone might understand and be inspired by in the 1550s was what Caravaggio's new naturalism looked like. Caravaggio kept capturing the "warts and all" of actual people in his dramatic scenes. He displayed great ability of light and dark, using the chiaroscuro method to give dimension to his figures and the tenebrism technique to bring drama to his paintings.

 The bottom half of Christ's body is being carried by Saint Nicodemus, while the upper part is supported by John the Evangelist. Caravaggio tries to depict the event in a specific moment. He portrays in this instance what happens right before the two guys lower him into the tomb. 


Graham-Dixon, Andrew. "Caravaggio." Jul 28, 1999, 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Caravaggio. Accessed 9 October 2023

Comments

  1. katarinaOctober 12, 2023 at 12:18 PM

    This painting is absolutely beautiful! I love how rich and deep the colors are in this piece. I am also in awe of how Caravaggio uses lights and shadows to produce so much texture and movement within the cloth in this piece. You can really see the influence of the Baroque period through the obvious diagonal of all the figures. Here is another great example of the influence of the Council of Trent in the Baroque period. It is very easy for the everyday person to understand what is going on in this scene.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stefanie WalkerOctober 13, 2023 at 6:20 AM

    This painting really speaks volumes. The colors make you focus on the details and image that it is portraying. This time period really makes it as if we are right there during the time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Andrell WalkerOctober 14, 2023 at 5:39 AM

    Although this painting also has dark background, it is a brighter theme then what I am used to seeing from the Baroque era. The people portrayed in the painting are livelier with the same dramatic affect you would get in a "calmer" painting with more facial based tenebrism. The theme of this painting gives me a "one for all" vibe being sacrificial for the best of everybody or the council's interest.

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  4. AnnaLayne UlroanOctober 16, 2023 at 6:56 PM

    This displays a beautiful event happening in the Catholic religion, the lowering of Christ into his tomb. I am so shocked that only one of Caravaggio's paintings is displayed in one of the world's largest collections of art. Did you know that after Christ was laid in his tomb, he was then to be risen into Heaven? His tomb was found empty when women went to check it, and angels were there to inform them that Christ has risen.

    ReplyDelete
  5. lyliannOctober 17, 2023 at 3:54 PM

    this is a very interesting time capsule, thank you for sharing. Even though the act they are doing is dark an gloomy, the use of colors and the dark background really capture my eye.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Claire MontagueOctober 19, 2023 at 11:47 PM

    I really like how the use of colors catch your eye even though the background is dark. This piece is a lot brighter than a lot of the other artworks from the Baroque era. Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

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