Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, simply known as Caravaggio, can be said to have been the first great dop in history. With his unique ability to set up scenes of light, he marked the ages, inspiring generations of painters and visual artists and profoundly influencing the art that followed him.
But why can Caravaggio be called the first dop in history? And why is he referred to as the master of light? We invite you to find out with us on a journey through some of his major works.
Caravaggio's paintings are apparitions that emerge abruptly from darkness; the background is almost always abolished, many times supplanted by drapery or a theatrical backdrop. The characters in the stories emerge through a beam of light as sharp as a blade, investing totally dark environments: a sudden glow, a glimpse that captures only a part of reality, a snapshot of a precise moment placed in space and time. Everything else is shrouded in darkness. However, the darkness in Caravaggio's paintings is vibrant and palpable; it almost seems to physically shape forms and space with an intensity that is completely unprecedented and difficult to replicate by other artists.
In Caravaggio's painting, darkness has a structuring value, as it builds forms. Light has symbolic value, because it enhances details, reinforces the building lines of the painting, and metaphorically represents divine intervention. The result is a dramatic chiaroscuro, strongly contrasted and functional to invest the scenes with emotionality. Although we are talking about two-dimensional media, in Caravaggio's canvases there is nothing static, the balances are precarious, and the treatment of light gives reinforcement to that precariousness, the fast intensity of the action is made palpable, through the light sign of divinity, the only possibility of grace, acting in the dense penumbness, a saving ray, illuminating the darkness of human existence.
According to some sources, it seems that Caravaggio had broken through the attic of his workshop, transforming it into a real studio where, through reflection games, optical chambers and concave mirrors, he used to refine his lighting technique.
In parallel with a reasoned use of light, the Milanese painter was also a great student of color theory, which was often applied to works in a functional way. The combination of light and color, just as in a well-crafted film, thus becomes a technique for accentuating emotional states and conveying messages.
Light and color in five iconic paintings by Caravaggio
"La vocazione di San Matteo", 1600
This work depicts Christ calling St. Matthew, surprising him in illicit activities with some companions. The light is disruptive and comes from outside the scene (and not from the window that stands out in the center of the canvas, buffered as if we were in a theater set). It is the quintessential divine and symbolic light: a powerful and natural beam illuminates Christ's hand and part of his arm limply pointing to St. Matthew, continues on the face and hand of the Saint who is surprised by the call, highlights in detail the sinful men surrounding St. Matthew intent on counting money. The light in this case guides the main action of the scene, highlights and reinforces it. More, it represents the building director of the entire canvas. Light, as is often the case in Caravaggio, is salvific and democratic: it invests both the blessed and the sinners; it is up to them to decide whether to redeem themselves or to continue sinning.
"Giuditta e Oloferne", 1602
The canvas depicts another biblical myth, admirably interpreted by Caravaggio. Judith, the Jewish widow, decapitates the Assyrian leader Holofernes with the help of her trusty servant. Here Caravaggio works with deep shadows and radiant, cinematic lighting that enhances the expressions on the faces. Lighting is expertly brought to the points of interest in the scene and artfully combined with color: the maidservant has a decrepit face and spirited eyes, Judith is almost divinely inspired, characterized by an ambiguous expression somewhere between knowing and frowning. The light, again, plays a symbolic role: it rips through the scene diagonally, highlighting the rawness of the gesture and the dramatic emotionality of the moment. But in Caravaggio, as we have seen, light goes hand in hand with color. So here are the robes of Judith, though the protagonist of a violent gesture, are a pure, immaculate white. The robes of the maidservant, less noble, present similar shades of color but soiled by the blacks and buffeted by the deep shadows the painter creates. Inevitable is the ruby red cloth that serves as an almost theatrical backdrop and contributes to the canvas' additional emotional charge.
"Madonna dei Pellegrini", 1604
This painting is a symbol of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. It was commissioned from Caravaggio in order to safeguard the image of the church, which, determined to combat prostitution in Rome, wanted to give a signal to Protestant critics. The scene, also mentioned in a well-known Italian TV series, is a Caravaggesque reinterpretation of the classic theme of the Virgin and Child visited by pilgrims. In this canvas Caravaggio's cinematographer's vision is glaring: the composition, lighting, clothing, and scenery are deliberately painted in a break with traditional iconography. Thus the light is no longer flat and uniform, it is directed on the pilgrims' dirty feet, worn out by the many steps, a detail strategically lit to focus attention on the humanity and poverty of the scene. Thus the Madonna is depicted using a prostitute as a model, dressed in rags and with her head covered by a dirty cap. The child is lit from behind and characterized by a powerful chiaroscuro. The throne on which the Madonna habitually sat in classical depictions becomes the doorpost of a deliberately decrepit door. Everything is humanized, including light. And it is precisely light that is used to flush out the details most important to convey the message (the feet, the cracks in the wall, the wrinkles and signs of time on the pilgrim's face)
"La morte della Vergine", 1606
It is the largest painting ever made by Caravaggio, as well as the last altarpiece executed by the painter in Rome. It is also one of the most controversial paintings, depicting a classical theme such as the death of the Madonna but with the usual polemical vein toward traditional iconography. Mary is dressed in scarlet red (not black as tradition dictates), stripped of her regal divinity and thrown onto a mortuary table. Her feet are bare, her ankles swollen, her face livid, her hair in disarray, and her belly prominent. Light is once again the protagonist: it illuminates Magdalene in the foreground, dressed in orangey red, weeping in a theatrical, blatant gesture. The beam bursting obliquely from left to righta symbol of the divine, it is a natural light that lingers mainly on Mary's body. Instead of the usual angels and Christ receiving the soul of the deceased, Caravaggio arranges a large drape over the scene that resembles a theatrical backdrop that has risen from Mary's dead body. The drape is the final detail that connects Caravaggio's color theory, a kind of researched and emphasized monochrome. The red of the drapery, the darkest and most saturated, returns in Mary's dress, bounces off the robes of the apostles (in shadow), and returns in a brighter shade tending toward orange in Magdalene's dress.
"Davide con la testa di Golia", 1609-1610
This work is surely one of Caravaggio's last, situated chronologically after his death sentence. In the head of Goliath, the Philistine giant beheaded by the biblical hero David, Caravaggio portrays himself tired and ill. David, a biblical hero and historically associated with good, emerges majestically and symbolically from the darkness. The canvas is undoubtedly one of the greatest examples of chiaroscuro achieved by the Italian painter: light appears in fleeting but essential flashes to emphasize David's musculature, the detail of the sword, and Goliath's face. All the rest is deep darkness, a large field of black that coats the entire scene with an almost suffocating drama.
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