"Everybody cheats" Caravaggio

Top-right: The Cardsharps, 1597,
Top-left:  The Fortune Teller, 1594
Bottom-right: The Cardsharps, detail.
Bottom-left: The Fortune Teller, detail





Caravaggio portrayed men of the streets and their activities and this is one of
At The Cardsharps the young men is being cheated by the other player who has a card at his back and an accomplice that is watching the young's man cards (detail).

The Fortune Teller is reading the hand while steals the ring of her client. (detail)

Saint Augustine by Caravaggio discovered in a private collection

Hidden on a private collection where it was considered as an anonymous this Saint Augustine painted by Caravaggio was discovered on April, 2011:

"A leading scholar, Sebastian Schütze, professor of art history at the University of Vienna and one of the book's co-authors, called the work a significant discovery.

He said: "It has never been published. What looked like an anonymous 17th-century painting revealed its artistic qualities after restoration."

The painting fits in to Caravaggio's oeuvre around 1600, when his style was sculptural and monumental, with powerful movement and emotional expression." (read whole article by The Guardian)"

This is a great discovery and I cannot help thinking about some masterpieces that are in private collections when they should be considered human heritage.

Two paintings by Caravaggio

Right: Judith beheading Holoferne, 1599.

Left: The conversion of Mary Magdalene, 1598.

I love Caravaggio but I never read too much about his life that was very difficult because of his temper.

At this site you can find good reproductions and his biography. I took this excerpt because it is important to understand his work:

"Caravaggio's three paintings for the Contarelli Chapel not only caused a sensation in Rome but also marked a radical change in his artistic preoccupation. Henceforth he would devote himself almost entirely to the painting of traditional religious themes, to which, however, he gave a whole new iconography and interpretation. He often chose subjects that are susceptible to a dramatic, violent, or macabre emphasis, and he proceeded to divest them of their idealized associations, taking his models from the streets. Caravaggio may have used a lantern hung to one side in his shuttered studio while painting from his models. The result in his paintings is a harsh, raking light that strikes across the composition, illuminating parts of it while plunging the rest into deep shadow. This dramatic illumination heightens the emotional tension, focuses the details, and isolates the figures, which are usually placed in the foreground of the picture in a deliberately casual grouping. This insistence on clarity and concentration, together with the firm and vigorous drawing of the figures, links Caravaggio's mature Roman works with the classical tradition of Italian painting during the Renaissance."

Caravaggio painted on the canvas without and previous drawing.

Georges de la Tour Candlelit Scenes

Georges de la Tour, influenced by Caravaggio, depicted scenes lighted by candles in many of his religious works creating an atmosphere of stillness, quietness and introspection.

Musicians by Caravaggio and Picasso - music and painting

Right: Three Musicians, 1921, Picasso Left: The Musicians, 1595-96, by Caravaggio There is a good test about the theme music in arts at this page. "One can almost hear the music." Here is the list they did of paintings whose theme is music:

Works

A Christmas Carol (Dante Gabriel Rossetti) A Lute Player (Edwin Austin Abbey) A Sea Spell (Dante Gabriel Rossetti) A Tale from Decameron (John William Waterhouse) Allegory of Music (Jean-François de Troy) Ancient Sound, Abstract on Black (Paul Klee) At the Opera (Mary Cassatt) Ball at the Moulin de la Galette (Pierre-Auguste Renoir) Boy Playing a Flute (Judith Leyster) Buffoon Playing a Lute (Frans Hals) Carousing Couple (Judith Leyster) Concert Champêtre (Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater) Contrasting Sounds (Wassily Kandinsky) El Jaleo (John Singer Sargent) Girl Sewing (Mary Cassatt) Golden Hours (Lord Frederic Leighton) Golden Stairs (Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones) Grandpa's Little Ballerina (Norman Rockwell) Juene Fille a la Mandoline (Pablo Ruiz y Picasso) La Boheme (Jamie Wyeth) La Danse à la Ville (Pierre-Auguste Renoir) Ladies Concert at the Philharmonic Hall (Francesco Guardi) Lute Player (Michelangelo Merisi (Caravaggio)) Lydia in a Loge Wearing a Pearl Necklace (Mary Cassatt) Merry Trio (Judith Leyster) Mezzetin (Jean-Antoine Watteau) Music (Henri Matisse) Music - Pink and Blue II (Georgia O'Keeffe) Musician's Table (Juan Gris) Piano Lesson (Romare Bearden) Singer (Everett Shinn) Still Life with Harp and Violin (Georges Braque) The Awakening Conscience (William Holman Hunt) The Cellist (Amadeo Modigliani) The Concert (Johannes Vermeer) The Concert (Judith Leyster) The Dance of the Almeh (Jean Léon Gérôme) The Dancer Camargo (Nicolas Lancret) The Grand Turk Giving a Concert to his Mistress (Charles-André van Loo) The Lament (Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones) The Music Lesson (Gerard ter Borch) The Musicians (Michelangelo Merisi (Caravaggio)) The Old Guitarist (Pablo Ruiz y Picasso) Tribute to Mozart (Raoul Dufy) Venetian Ladies Listening to the Serenade (Frank Cadogan Cowper) Veronica Veronese (Dante Gabriel Rossetti)

Note that Kandinsky is at the list. I will do a special post about his relation to music.

Caravaggio - "Bacchus" or "Dionysus" details

Renascence brought back Greek and Roman gods. Bacchus or Dionysus, the god of wine and son of Zeus is also known to bring fertility, abundance and voluptuousness was portrayed by some renascent artists. Caravaggio depicted the god using a teenager of his time as model which is one of the aspects of his style. You can see that the details are very powerful and maybe in front of the real masterpiece your eyes would be browsing around them. This is the god for Fridays. Have a nice weekend.

Michelangelo Merisi - Caravaggio - The Card Players

Click at the image above to see "Tutta l'opera del Caravaggio" an amazing project with great images of his works. Above "The Card", 1594. Hmmm.... the card. Americans can see it at Kimbell Art Museum, Texas. Caravaggio is the name of city he was born.

Echo and Narcissus - Caravaggio and Poussin - Mythology

Nicolas Poussin, Echo and Narcissus, 1627 Caravaggio, Narcissus, 1596 Echo was condemned by Jupiter only to be able to speak the last words of someone else's speech. Narcissus was in love with his own image and left Echo, who was in love with him, heartbroken and she spent the rest of her life in lonely glens, pining away for the love she never knew, until only her voice remained. This is the dialog at Ovid's Metamorphoses: Narcissus [shouts]: "Is there anyone here?" Echo [eagerly]: "Here!" Narcissus: "Come to me!" Echo: "Come to me!" Narcissus [starting to get irritated]: "Why are you avoiding me?" Echo: "Why are you avoiding me?" Narcissus: "Here! Come with me!" Echo [shouting in ecstasy]: "Come with me!" She rushes out of her hiding place and flings herself at him. Narcissus, repelled by the idea of physical contact, pushes her away, and starts to run. Narcissus [savagely]: "Take your hands off me! No! How dare you touch me!" Echo [screaming]: "Touch me!"