Seventeenth-century Italian painting is divided between realistic representation and inspiration from Antiquity. Baroque painting, including Italian Baroque painting, has such a diversity of techniques, styles, and functions that it is difficult to find characteristics that unify the different schools.
Naturalism versus classicism in Baroque painting
In Italy, as in the entire Catholic world, religious painting became very important, intended to familiarize the faithful with the supernatural and with themes that emphasized the glory of divine power. At the same time, the vanity of worldly triumphs was also reflected, sometimes through genre scenes (themes of everyday life) and still lifes, which underwent unique development at the time. Mythological and historical painting, as well as portraiture, also gained importance.
At the beginning of the 17th century, two major stylistic trends dominated Italian painting:
* naturalism, represented by the brilliant figure of Caravaggio, who radicalized the enlightening and populist tendencies of the Counter-Reformation;
* and classicism, whose main proponent was Annibale Carracci, who revived the classical tradition with a harmonious sense of beauty as the embodiment of thought.
The genius of Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi (1563-1610), known as Caravaggio, is one of the great names in the history of painting. With a belligerent and rebellious personality, his biography is permeated with scandals, which contributed to perpetuating his image as a cursed and anti-classical painter.
Caravaggio only came to be valued as the great genius he was after the triumph of realism in the 19th century. With the advent of photography, the public and critics were ready for the dramatic lighting effects created by the Italian painter, which often hint at the rawness of photography, as opposed to any idealization, and the movement of cinema. Many critics believe that this creation, averse to disguises and fantasy — even the saints he portrayed express clearly human emotions — makes Caravaggio one of the pillars of modern art.
A master of chiaroscuro (light and dark), he sought intense contrasts of light and shadow, which reinforce the dramatic gestures of his characters. This lighting technique, which makes the figure emerge from the shadows, became known as “tenebrism.”
Caravaggio began by painting portraits of young men, who represented Bacchus or other mythological figures, as well as scenes from the Gospels, always inspired by everyday characters. The physical characteristics of these saints are raw, without embellishment: they feel hunger, fear, fatigue, and their facial expressions show it; their feet may be muddy and their clothes wrinkled. They are saints and communicate with heaven, but they live on Earth and experience human dramas. The paintings in the Contarelli Chapel in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome demonstrate the tension with which the artist treats themes of faith. The great work in this group is the painting The Calling of Saint Matthew (c. 1600). In his late works, light dissolves space, which becomes a metaphor for a great void. Reality also becomes even more relentless, as in The Death of the Virgin (1606). There are no disguises: despite her holiness and being the mother of Jesus, Mary does not ascend to heaven surrounded by angels or ethereal lights. She dies like any mortal, leaving behind a lifeless body and tearful, astonished spectators.
The followers of Caravaggio
Despite his short and wandering life, Caravaggio left behind countless followers. His painting served as the basis for European Baroque, influencing—through adoration or opposition—the great geniuses who began painting after him. The great Spanish school of painting, for example, was directly related to Caravaggio's painting. Painters such as Ribera became completely dependent on Caravaggio's influence,
while a genius such as Velázquez strove to find alternatives to deviate from and overcome the Caravaggian style, the previous paradigm.
Some Italian painters, however, were his actual disciples: artists with whom he lived in various cities. Having murdered a man in a fight, Caravaggio lived by migrating from one place to another. This is one of the reasons why few paintings have his authorship genuinely proven. Among his most direct followers, Horacio Gentileschi (1563-1629), Carlo Saraceni (1585-1620), and Horacio Borgianni (1575-1616) stand out.
A contemporary of Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) followed his own path. He is the academic and least singular representative of Italian painting of the period. An artist who underwent rigorous training, he used classical models to explore moral themes. His masterpiece is the decoration of the Farnese Gallery (1597), where he developed mythological themes to explore platonic love in various scenes conceived
as paintings.
