Caravaggio

Often in Caravagio’s paintings, there is no

architecture. Story is through human figures

tenebrism

high contrast between light and dark

The Lute Player

1595, oil on canvas. May have been a eunuch. Actual musical notation. Acquaintances as models, things where they shouldn’t be.

He apprenticed under

Cavaliere

Caravaggio was not an idealist, as shown by his use of

acquaintances as models

for all the reality, there’s always

something artificial - a plant or vegetable where it shouldn’t be

during this period, women are gaining

traction as singers

local color

true color under daylight, without shadows or anything too affect it

Caravaggio tends to create this sort of shape

vertical vs. horizontal rectangles

The Calling of St. Matthew 1599-1600 was Caravaggio’s first

public commission

The entirety of Contarelli Chapel is about the

life and martyrdom of St. Matthew

The Calling of St Matthew is oil on canvas, not fresco, so it could be…

done at a studio

the shaft of light in the Calling of St Matthew is

in line with the real chapel windows

The people in the painting are wearing

contemporary dress

Importantly, Matthew is

not rising from the table at the counting house

the gesture in this painting is really similar to the

Creation of Adam

Caravaggio sometimes uses this to show the figures in his paintings

dramatic, unnatural lighting

The Basket of Fruit, 1595-1601

one of 2 of his still lives that we know of.

Still life is becoming part of

narrative pieces

the fruit in this painting is

overripe

The fruit being overripe is

characteristic of Caravaggio. Dirty, earthy

Caravaggio doesn’t use tears, as they can look comic, so instead he uses

grimaces of pain