Baroque Art & Caravaggio

Baroque art was prominent in the 17th Century between Mannerism and Rococo and it is associated with the Catholic Counter-Reformation.  This style represents both a continuation and a radical transformation of the ideals of the Renaissance.  According to Marcelo Lima PhD (Introduction to the History of Art)  the Baroque period "forms the basis of modern culture, and constitutes the soil or foundation of some of the central aspects of modern experience".

I see Baroque art as dramatic and full of detail and usually has an emotional subject matter which makes viewing this art quite intense  and visually powerful.  Caravaggio is a great Baroque painter.  He created works with intensely expressive subjects with very realistic characteristics and used light and dark very effectively.

This is Caravaggio's "The Taking of the Christ"

The next two images would probably be my favourites from Caravaggio.

"Doubting Thomas"

"Judith and Holofemes"

These paintings are almost like photographs.  In fact he actually used modern darkroom techniques in creating his masterpieces, despite the fact that he painted over 200 years before the camera existed.  He may have treated his canvases with a light-sensitive substance as a way of fixing an image to the canvas.  The substance may have been a luminescent powder that was made from crushed fireflies.  He then used white lead mixed with chemicals like mercury, to outline the image (Lapucci in Squires, 2009).  

Caravaggio.com has some fascinating reading about this incredible artist.