ARTH Notes - Sept 29

Caravaggio's followers independent, unique style

Caravaggio's impact complicated
Carracci family establishes academy
Family was a force in Bologna, led by three brothers, Ludovico, Agostino, Annibale
Came from worker environment
Emphasis on working collaboratively
Ludovico: oldest,
Madonna shown as celestial and looking at viewer
Annibale: fragile, becomes emotionally distant after Caravaggio leaves Rome
Genre imagery, everyday subjects (butcher shop)
Painterly work: deliberacy of placement of pigment
Show choices of painter

Death of the Virgin

Tailored to location
Designed with the final location in mind (Cherubini Chapel in S. Maria della Scalla church)
Arrangement moves left to right
The composition moves diagonally from left to right
Underscored? by the heads of the mourning and the way that the light falls on the wall
Virgin brightly illuminated, emerges out of darkness
The lighting highlights the late Virgin, and subjects standing around her seem to draw light
from her presence, growing darker the farther they stand from her body.
Red curtain references Virgin's dress, repeats diagonal
The brilliant red of the curtain draped over the Virgin's body and funeral group serves to
frame the scene's diagonal axis. It references/mimics the woman's red gown and seems to
illustrate the heavy mood/sentiment hanging over the crowd.
Placed high on wall, virgin is about 13 feet above the floor

Placed high above the viewers, the Virgin herself lies nearly 13 feet above the chapel floor
Illumination follows the same path as the figures
Fictive illumination, "divine" light

Beheading of Saint John the Baptist