Caravaggio, I Am
Caravaggio violent murderess and genial star of a tormented life in the beginning of the seventeenth century. A legend crafted by biographers, however, that the material was never lacking.
This year we celebrate the four hundred years after the death of Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio (1571-1610), with important exhibitions, first of all, the exhibition at the Quirinal Stables gathering to himself a group of about thirty works attributed to the genius of this important artist, and other comparisons.
hordes of visitors, pilgrims, attracted by the centennial and the events held in his memory, lend themselves to celebrate its importance. At
Quirinal Stables the exhibition had a record number of visitors: 580mila Visitors total of which 5,150 on average each day during the four months. A centenary, with a "National Committee to celebrate the fourth centenary of the death of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610)," becomes an opportunity to redefine
through initiatives with a high scientific level, the real human and artistic profile master of Lombardy, and to offer moments of analysis and reflection on his extraordinary artistic production .
And while we celebrate the celeberrimus pictor , the great master, the young apprentice who came to Rome from Lombardy to become one of the highest warnings from the history of art, able to invent light for a new balance and a structural function space completely new and ingenious, the National Committee for the enhancement of heritage, historical, cultural and environmental announces the discovery of his bones in the cemetery of Porto Ercole, thanks to the work of a team of experts and necroscienziati.
the footsteps of Caravaggio as the remains of the set of CSI: tests of carbon, the DNA of the remains in mass graves. Everything for the presence of the remains of the great master in Porto Ercole, where until now the most reliable sources claim that the artist died in July 1610.
85%, you are sure to have found the remains of Caravaggio. Carbon 14 allowed a first dating of the finds and the selection of those who went back to the time of his death. Subsequent analysis on age and gender have excluded those belonging to women and children. Finally, the analysis of DNA compared with that of the descendants of the family Merisi.
and possible causes of death? Chemical and microbiological analysis to ascertain the presence of lead poisoning and death, an element found in large amounts in the colors. And, that syphilis may have contracted for the life of unbridled and uninhibited behavior in Rome. Or brucellosis, or death from malaria. In short, the yellow is more dense and full of surprises.
To 85% of the bones found are of Caravaggio, but not yet in a position to reach some conclusions.
Thanks to the flourishing of the studies, the biographical events of Caravaggio have been reconstructed for a large part fueling stereotypes, myths and legends that almost belittle his complex personality and image. Much has been written and much said and will say it again, true or false about likely, but certainly, his works are large claim that the objective meaning of new contents and forms of a painting of renewal came close to the real things observation of the mad reality.
Although known and admired in life, also refused and uncomfortable, it was almost forgotten in the centuries after his death before being recognized for its importance in the twentieth century as a precursor and its missing link for the development of modern art.
Historians, biographers and critics are in a ferment to discover the reality, as if this could help to validate the reputation of a genius. We, as mere spectators, but we prefer to admire the works blinded and lost in ecstatic wonder that few were able to create with color, form, content.
Although still far from the truth is revealed, the gossip almost obscures its importance. New discoveries of critical Vinceti and his school to retract the lead figure of Caravaggio, the reasons for its death and history. Caravaggio was a great interpreter of his time and, similarly, huge figure of his time. Irregular, uncomfortable, heretical, brilliant, impetuous, against, tortured lives and daring that ended in a real way. Reale, perhaps simpler, perhaps tragic, perhaps on the coast of the Sea. The classical period of art is closed, bringing the light of a new renovation.
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, St. Matthew and the Angel , 1602 (montage on the left of the first version rejected and destroyed - already Berlin, Kaiser Friedrich Museum - On the right the official version - Rome, St. Louis of France, chapel Contarelli ).
Cardinal Contarelli commissioned Caravaggio's work to decorate the chapel at the Church of St. Louis of France in Rome.
The first version of the work was rejected by the congregation because they are too "strong" because it could not accept to see the fore feet of the saint thrown roughly to the faithful while the angel appeared to them to help themselves to read. The work was soon acquired by Vincenzo Giustiniani. The official revised
sees the saint and the angel placed on a floor (in bassso you see the stool in the balance that comes from the scene) with the saint who has lost the appearance of a rough peasant to become a wise old man and the angel came from above showing the movement inspired by the rhetoric.
Faggion Guido, "Caravaggio, I Am," CircÓs, 25/06/2010
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