Religion through Art: Comparing Michelangelo and Caravvagio - Research Paper Example

Religion through Art: Comparing Michelangelo and Caravaggio OUTLINE I. Thesis ment My research paper will address the theme of religion by comparing and contrasting the artists Michelangelo and Carravaggio and will show that though religion was the eternal pool of inspiration for both, it was ‘religion through art’ for Michelangelo and ‘art through religion’, for Carravaggio. II. Michelangelo was an ardent believer while Carravaggio was a constant rebel A. Michelangelo always had divine rather than humane figures in his paintings. He avoided visual idioms of “good work” and ornamentation in his later works in obedience to the reformation ideology while Carravaggio never stopped painting saints and Virgin Mary in resemblance of the thiefs and prostitutes whom he saw in real life. Caravaggio adhered to his ideology of realism even as, churches went on rejecting or asking for redrawing the paintings commissioned to him. Michelangelo was more ready to conform to the dictums of the church regarding his artistic work and kept constantly alert regarding the ideological connotation of his works. Examples 1. Michelangelo painted the whole religious doctrine of the Catholic Church even as he was attracted by reformation ideology. 2. Caravaggio’s Virgin Mary was in the resemblance of a well-known prostitute. 3. The Sistine Chapel painting’s whole concept was changed from the initial idea by the new Pope, which Michelangelo accepted. 4. In the paintings, Raising of Lazarus, The Calling of St. Mathew and The Conversion of St. Paul, Carravaggio depicts Jesus Christ’s commands being partially ignored by those who are present. B. Michelangelo always tried to find expression to his religious beliefs through his paintings. Hence, Michelangelo’s saints and religious figures are perfection personified. Carravaggio is least bothered about the sacred as he pictured saints with bald heads and mundane faces. Religious paintings were, for him, simply opportunities for self-expression in realism. Examples 1. Pieta by Michelangelo gives the message of redemption 2. Last Judgment by Michelangelo represents the whole Catholic doctrine 3. Petinent Magdalene by Carravaggio depicts Magdalene as a girl next door without the sacred aura 4. Groom’s Madonna by Carravaggio was accused of vulgarity III. Michelangelo was a man of faith in his real life while Carravaggio was a murderer and trouble-maker who was not at all keen about his own spirituality. A. The reformation ideas could influence Michelangelo only because he was a man deeply concerned about the truth of life and spiritual self-realization. Caravaggio, being never followed the path of the faithful, could approach his work without bothering about religious value systems even when his works were on religion. It is this attitudinal difference that gets reflected in both the artists’ works. Examples 1. Michelangelo has drawn in, his own face in Last Judgment, to visualize the face of a saint 2. Carravaggio has given his resemblance to villainous characters in his paintings, instead. B. Michelangelo has glorified religious figures in his paintings while Caravaggio has demystified them. 1. Pieta younger than her age in painting by Michelangelo 2. Cupid with dirty toe nails in painting by Carravaggio 3. St. Peter is a bald man in Carravaggio’s painting 4. The depiction of nudity in Michelangelo’s paintings were an attempt to raise the divine figures above the human realm 5. The presence of imperfections on the bodies of sacred figures in Carravaggio’s paintings were a negation of the divine. IV. Michelangelo put the divine in a realm above human experience in his paintings while Carravaggio mixed the sacred with the profane. A. All the faces and figures of Michelangelo are perfection personified while all the characters in Caravaggio’s paintings are drawn from real life and hence imperfect. 1. The frozenness that is felt in Pieta 2. The youthfulness on the face of Pieta 3. the constant motion that is felt in Carravaggio paintings B. Both the artists were accused of setting art above religion though it was Carravaggio who actually did that. 1. Carravaggio did not try to glorify the saints and divine personalities in his paintings 2. Michelangelo created flaw less characters instead V. Conclusion: For Michelangelo, art is a path to spiritual realization though he got somewhat disillusioned in that matter, by the reformation ideology. For him, it is ‘religion through art’. But for Carravaggio, religion is only a resource pool for ideas for his paintings. Apart from this, he is free of the burden of religious ethics, as he never took religion seriously. For him, it is ‘art through religion’ Religion through Art: Comparing Michelangelo and Caravaggio My research paper will address the theme of religion by comparing and contrasting the artists Michelangelo and Caravaggio and will show that though religion was the eternal pool of inspiration for both, Michelangelo nourished religion through art and Carravaggio nourished art through religion. Michelangelo always had, divine figures rather than humane ones in his paintings. He avoided visual idioms of “good work” and ornamentation in his later works in obedience to the reformation ideology while Carravaggio never stopped painting saints and Virgin Mary in resemblance of the thiefs and prostitutes whom he saw in real life (Einem, 232; Johnson). Caravaggio adhered to his ideology of realism even as, churches went on rejecting or asking for redrawing the paintings commissioned to him. Michelangelo was more ready to conform to the dictums of the church regarding his artistic work. While putting forth this thesis, it has to be kept in mind that during the reformation period, Michelangelo was also accused of putting art above religion (Einem, 2). Michelangelo’s Last Judgment was described as immoral, offensive to Christian faith and subversive of religion to art, primarily because of the nudity depicted in that (Einem, 2). But when taken as a whole, the paintings, letters, biography, poetry and life of Michelangelo are all in obedience to Christian faith (Einem, 158). Michelangelo painted the whole religious doctrine of Catholic Church on the walls of different churches even when personally he was attracted to reformation. But Carravaggio, on the other hand, had no hesitation to offend both the reformation and counter-reformation ideologies, whenever he felt an artistic need. Some elements of counter- reformation were of course embedded in his work, but all the same he brought in a shocking realism into religious art in a very non-sentimental way (Johnson). It has been observed that Michelangelo’s friend, “Vittoria Colonna destroyed Michelangelo’s faith in the power of art to achieve eternity” (Einem, 162). Instead he was convinced that only faith could lead to one’s salvation, which was the motto of the Protestant reformation (Einem, 158). The differences between the drawing of Pieta and marble Pieta have been attributed to the changes in Michelangelo’s religious beliefs. In the drawing, Mary is the center of attention while in the sculpture, it is Christ who is central to the whole structure and the idea of redemption commands prominence (Einem, 164). In this way, Michelangelo can be seen constantly trying to find expression to his religious ideas through his paintings. The reformation ideas could influence Michelangelo only because he was a man deeply concerned about the truth of life and spiritual self-realization. Caravaggio, being never followed the path of the faithful, could approach his work without bothering about religious value systems even when his works were on religion. It is this attitudinal difference that gets reflected in both the artists’ works. Michelangelo always tried to find expression to his religious beliefs through his paintings. Hence, Michelangelo’s saints and religious figures are perfection personified. Carravaggio is least bothered about the sacred as he pictured bald saints with mundane faces. Religious paintings were, for him, simply opportunities for self-expression in realism. Michelangelo has drawn, his own face in Last Judgment, to visualize the face of a saint while Carravaggio has given his resemblance to villainous characters in his paintings, instead (Einem, Hibbard). Carravaggio painted religious personalities with a touch of realism, which made them resemble faces from every day life (Johnson). This eventually prompted church authorities to reject five paintings, which were commissioned to him (Johnson). Living in the volatile period of Protestant reformation and counter-reformation, he was bringing in corresponding changes in art as well, but that made the religious authorities rather unhappy (Johnson). In his painting, Raising of Lazarus, Carravaggio has depicted Lazarus half dead, half alive, which is interpreted as a heterogenous response to the command of Jesus (Hammil, 54). The visual language of the painting leaves a doubt behind- whether Lazarus will come alive or not. Only a few of the witnesses of Christ’s call in this painting are aware of the miracle that is happening. This again is a sign of the heterogeneity or ambiguity of the situation (Adams, 54). In The Calling of St. Mathew, also, the same is the case, according to critics of Carravaggio (Adams, 54). In this painting, the moment that is depicted is not St Mathew responding to Christ’s call but “the moment between the call and Mathew’s understanding that he is this call’s addressee” (Adams, 54). In this way, this painting is supposed to be questioning the notion that Christ’s call is “irresistible” (Adams, 54). Also, in The Conversion of St. Paul, the moment that is visualized is the moment in which Paul is “in the process of being drawn toward the absent voice calling him to be something else” (Adams, 55). This constant ambiguity in Carravaggio’s religious paintings was the element that made him a target of criticism from the religious circles. The rebellious nature of Caravaggio’s works can be understood from the way he mixed profane with the sacred, in his paintings. This is why it is observed in the website, The National Gallery,: Much to the horror of his critics, he used ordinary working people with irregular, rough and characterful faces as models for his saints and showed them in recognisably contemporary surroundings. In many paintings, such as the Supper at Emmaus, he makes his paintings appear to be an extension of real space, deliberately making the viewers feel as if they are taking part in the scene. Scholars have different views on whether Caravaggio was influenced by counter-reformation thought or not (Wittkower, 1980; Julian). The three paintings that Caravaggio did for Augustinian churches, namely, The Conversion of St. Paul, The Crucifixion of St.Peter and Madonna di Loretto, have been viewed as conforming to the “practices of the (St.Ignatius Loyola’s Spiritual) Exercises” (Chorpenning, 149). Apart from such subtle shades of religious ideologies, the direct appearance of his paintings was shocking to the faithful Christian commoners. When Caravaggio painted Penitent Magdalene, he depicted a woman who sat weeping on the floor and his critics missed the aesthetics of understatement in it because the Roman style prevalent in those times was one of overstatement (Warwick and Caravaggio, 94-95). The realist style of Caravaggio was diametrically opposite to the classical idealism of Michelangelo. He even used a prostitute as the model to draw Virgin Mary (Johnson). Almost all his religious works were dark and sinister moments from religious myths and texts but the intensity and drama with which he created them was irresistible for even his worst critic (Johnson). But in Pieta and in all other religious works of Michelangelo, it can be seen that perfection becomes an extension of faith. By avoiding all the unnecessary ornamentations, the attempt of the artist is to visualize pure faith. Pieta is younger than her age in the Michelangelo painting showing her divine ageless stature. But cupid is with dirty toe nails in the painting by Carravaggio. St. Peter is a bald man in Carravaggio’s painting while the depiction of nudity in Michelangelo’s paintings were an attempt to raise the divine figures above the human realm. At the same time, the presence of imperfections on the bodies of sacred figures in Carravaggio’s paintings were a negation of the divine. This is the difference between Michelangelo and Carravaggio. For Michelangelo, art is a path to spiritual realization though he got somewhat disillusioned in that matter, by the reformation ideology. But for Carravaggio, religion is only a resource pool for ideas for his paintings. Apart from this, he is free of the burden of religious ethics, as he never took religion seriously. For him, it is ‘art through religion’, through the opportunities that he can have from commissioned work by the churches. Works Cited Chorpenning, Joseph. F., “Another Look at Caravaggio and Religion”, Artibus et Historiae, Vol.8, No.16, 1987, pp.149-158. Einem, Herbert Von, “Michelangelo”, London: Taylor & Francis, n.d. Print. Hammil, Graham L., “History and the Flesh: Caravaggio’s Sexual Aesthetic”, In Art: Sublimation or Symptom, (Ed.) Parveen Adams, London: Karnac Books, 2003. Print. Hibbard, Howard, “Caravaggio”, Harper & Row, 1985. Print. Johnson, Paul, “Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi)”, In Art: A New History, The Artchive.com, n.d. web. 05 April 2011, http://www.artchive.com/artchive/C/caravaggio.html The National Gallery, “Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio”. n.d. web. 04 April 2011. http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/server.php?show=ConConstituent.93 Warwick, Genevieve and Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da, “Caravaggio: Realism, Rebellion, Reception”, Delaware: University of Delaware Press, 2006. Print. Wittkower, and Rudolph, “Art and Architecture in Italy: 1600 to 1750”, London: Penguin Books, 1980. Print. Read More