Martha and Mary Magdalene by Caravaggio

892 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays on caravaggio

The Painting Martha and Mary Magdalene is one of the many masterpieces in the DIA’s collection in Detroit. Although there is much more to understanding a work of art then just looking at it. In order to understand a piece, you have to understand the Artist, the time period, and the symbols in that painting that may have very different meaning today.
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio better known as simply Caravaggio was an Italian Baroque master painter born in Italy around 1571. After he apprenticed with a painter in Milan, he moved to Rome, where he lived for most of his life. His work influenced painters around Europe. He’s most known for his gruesome subjects and use of Tenebrism, which was a technique that used heavy shadow to emphasize light areas. His life was filled with great controversy. He was known for being violent, with “drastic mood swings and a love for drinking and gambling”. (N.A., "Caravaggio”) In 1606, Caravaggio killed a Roman pimp named Ranuccio Tomassoni. Historians don’t know why Caravaggio killed him only that Caravaggio fled Rome after the incident. His violence didn’t stop until his death in 1610. The cause of his death was unknown until 2010, when a team of scientists discovered high levels of lead that would have driven him mad.
‘Martha and Mary Magdalene’ sometimes known as ‘Martha Reproving Mary’ or ‘The Conversion of the Magdalene’ was painted by Caravaggio in 1595 and completed in 1596. The piece was done in oil and tempera on canvas, measuring at 39 and three eights by 53 inches. Art historians believed it to be a copy until the 1970’s. It wasn’t until after, that the DIA purchased this painting in 1974, where it has resided since. This composition is said to be where the artist has fully devel...

... middle of paper ...

...rtha and Mary Magdalene” will never be fully understood. Although with a little history and some digging, finding a deeper appreciation for the piece isn’t too hard.

Work Cited
Adamo, Rossella Vodret, and Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio. Caravaggio: The Complete Works. Cinisello Balsamo, Milano: Silvana, 2010. Print.
"Caravaggio." 2014. The Biography Channel website. Mar 29 2014, 03:40 http://www.biography.com/people/caravaggio-9237777.
Carroll, James. "Who Was Mary Magdalene?" SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE. N.p., June 2006. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
Ebert-Schifferer, S. Caravaggio: The Artist and His Work. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2012. Print.
Schauer, Julie. "Artventures." : Caravaggio and the Moment of Mary Magdalen. N.P., 5 Dec. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
Marandel, J. Patrice, Gianni Papi, and Amy Walsh. Caravaggio and His Legacy. Los Angeles: Prestel, 2012. Print.

Show More
Related

  • The Coloristic Virtuosity of Venetian Painting as Exhibited by Andrea Schiavone's "The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche"

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    Goldner, George R., Lee Hendrix, Gloria Williams Sander, N. J. L. Turner, and Carol Plazzotta. "Andrea Schiavone." In European drawings: catalogue of the collections. Malibu, Calif.: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1988. 114.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio

    1214 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Gentileschi—both father and little girl—delivered more expressive works of art than did Caravaggio. Fusing the cool blues, yellows, and violets that were strikingly truant from Caravaggio's palette, their sketches, especially those of Orazio, regularly reflected neighborhood impacts. By and by—and critical to the dialog of Caravaggism in Europe—their work uncovers an ingestion of Caravaggio's tenebrism, as well as of his way to deal with religious

    Read More

  • The Second Set of Doors at the Baptistery

    1268 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hartt, Frederick, and David G. Wilkins. History of Italian Renaissance art. 6th ed. of the book. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2006.

    Read More

  • Art From Baroque Period Through The Postmodern Era

    1462 Words  | 3 Pages

    Baxandall, M., Giotto and the Orators: Humanist Observers of Painting in Italy and the Discovery of Pictorial Composition, 1350-1450, Oxford, 1971. Bellori, G.P., Le vite detpittori, scultori et architetti modern), Rome, 1672. ed. E. Borea, intro. G. Previtali, Turin, 1976.

    Read More

  • Art Analysis: Portrait of a Woman With a Man at a Casement

    2038 Words  | 5 Pages

    Smith, R. “Eternal objects of desire. Art Review- Art and love in Renaissance Italy” in New York Times Art and Design, November 20, (2008)

    Read More

  • Divine Comedy - The Trinity in Dante's Inferno

    2095 Words  | 5 Pages

    Brucker, Gene A. & Co. Renaissance Florence. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969. Mandelbaum, Allen. A.

    Read More

  • Giovanni Bellini

    1175 Words  | 3 Pages

    Turner, Jane. "Bellini, Giovanni." The Dictionary of Art. Vol. 3. New York: Grove, 1996. 657-68. Print. This book provided a wealth of knowledge and information regarding everything involving the artist Giovanni Bellini. The information was extremely detailed and was used in writing both the biography and analyses.

    Read More

  • Lorenzo's Influence: Lorenzo De Medici And The Renaissance

    1441 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lorenzo De Medici can be considered as one of the most influential men of the 13th century. His work in political affairs and administration were renowned in all Italy and his family could count on him in every aspect. Lorenzo was also a promoter of a new period called Renaissance. He was one of the first “mecenate” to explore this new way of art. In this project, I will concentrate how he developed art in Florence, giving a clear example through an Artist of that period that was working for him: Sandro Botticelli. His work “The Spring” is a well-defined example of what we can call “art in the Renaissance”, in particular for the Italian Renaissance.

    Read More

  • St. Catherine of Siena

    2003 Words  | 5 Pages

    Meiss, Millard. Painting in Florence and Siena After the Black Death . New York: Princeton University Press, 1979.

    Read More

  • The Lives Of The Most Excellent Sculptor And Giorgio Vasai

    1781 Words  | 4 Pages

    Interestingly, he also refers to Donatello as a ‘craftsman’. The correlation between the artist or sculptor and craftsman is an important aspect in Italian Renaissance art. The craftsman was something more than just an artist. This person was talented and considered by others in Italian Renaissance society as exceptional or as Vasari’s title suggests, ‘the most excellent’. They were also tradespeople rather than just artists. This is because they created works for other people, which often meant they expressed other people’s ideas. Through an analysis of Vasari’s biography on Donatello, this essay will explore the importance of culture in Renaissance Italian society, an examination of Vasari’s biography of Donatello as a historical document and the ways in which Vasari portrays Donatello, which ultimately was significant for future Renaissance craftsmen. This paper will analyze the life of Donatello through Vasari’s The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects to show the importance of Donatello not only as an artist but also as a

    Read More

  • Comparison Of Perugino And Caravaggio

    1317 Words  | 3 Pages

    The artists of the Baroque had a remarkably different style than artists of the Renaissance due to their different approach to form, space, and composition. This extreme differentiation in style resulted in a very different treatment of narrative. Perhaps this drastic stylistic difference between the Renaissance and Baroque in their treatment of form, space, and composition and how these characteristics effect the narrative of a painting cannot be seen more than in comparing Perugino’s Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter from the Early Renaissance to Caravaggio’s Conversion of St. Paul from the Baroque.Perugino was one of the greatest masters of the Early Renaissance whose style ischaracterized by the Renaissance ideals of purity, simplicity, and exceptional symmetry of composition. His approach to form in Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St.Peter was very linear. He outlined all the figures with a black line giving them a sense of stability, permanence, and power in their environment, but restricting the figures’ sense of movement. In fact, the figures seem to not move at all, but rather are merely locked at a specific moment in time by their rigid outline. Perugino’s approach to the figures’themselves is extremely humanistic and classical. He shines light on the figures in a clear, even way, keeping with the rational and uncluttered meaning of the work. His figures are all locked in a contrapposto pose engaging in intellectual conversation with their neighbor, giving a strong sense of classical rationality. The figures are repeated over and over such as this to convey a rational response and to show the viewer clarity. Perugino’s approach to space was also very rational and simple. He organizes space along three simple planes: foreground, middle ground, and background. Christ and Saint Peter occupy the center foreground and solemn choruses of saints and citizens occupy the rest of the foreground. The middle distance is filled with miscellaneous figures, which complement the front group, emphasizing its density and order, by their scattered arrangement. Buildings from the Renaissance and triumphal arches from Roman antiquity occupy the background, reinforcing the overall classical message to the

    Read More

  • Virgin Child And Saint John Analysis

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jacopo del Sellaio’s Virgin, Child, and St. John is a characteristically iconographic tempera panel painting of Madonna, the Christ Child, and the infant St. John from the early renaissance, dating to the early 1480s. Sellaio was a Florentine painter under the apprenticeship of Sandro Botticelli, which reflects through his style and symbolism in the painting. In this work, he depicts a classically devotional scene filled with biblical symbolism. Sellaio’s Virgin, Child, and St. John expresses Mary’s loving role as Christ’s mother, the protective power and warmth of her maternal bond, and the significance of the birth of Christ.

    Read More

  • Mary Magdalene Research Paper

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mary Magdalene was a woman who was a mystery to many people for centuries. She was mentioned only a handful of times in the New Testament. Even though she was only mentioned a few times she carried a lot of character. To this day there is not an extended amount of information to help support people’s thoughts and ideas about this woman.

    Read More

  • Why Christian Icons are Considered to be Sacred Images?

    1085 Words  | 3 Pages

    Raphael. Madonna del Granduca. 1505. Oil on wood. 33 in. x 22 in. Palazzo Pitti, Florence.

    Read More

  • Early Christian Art

    2520 Words  | 6 Pages

    Larmann, R., & Shields, M. (2011). Art of Renaissance and Baroque Europe (1400–1750). Gateways to Art (pp. 376-97). New York: W.W. Norton.

    Read More

More about Martha and Mary Magdalene by Caravaggio

Open Document