Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio in the Pushkin museum
To be surprised or to have ability to be impressed, inspired - this feature helps to understand you. What does it impresses you?
Some days ago my wife and I were at an exhibition of Caravaggio. Watching his masterpieces I couldn’t shrug off the impression that his contradictory life passed separately from his works. Being not moral enough he could create wonderful paintings with deeply felt spiritual sense. Or his talent can deceive the watcher (though it hardly is; works which belong to Vatican can’t be superficial)
Probably his talent was timeless. Ages of Renaissance set the certain frames of art especially in Italy. And how Caravaggio could get out from these frames - it’s like a secret. He should escape from the persecutions and hardly had time to think about something new in the art, so he must be worked beyond the space of surrounding reality and spirit of days. It was especially noticed visible when we passed moved to another hall of the same epoch… Thingies, thick little angels, a lot of details on background and rich colors…
Carravaggio could reproduce the volume of painting space and reality of happening with tints of one color. No superfluous details. Sense is in positions of personages, colors of their clothes...
Every shown work deserves to be told about but I’ll say about two of them - “Adoration of the shepherds” and “Martyrdom of St.Ursula”. I can’t imagine how he could make volume of the shed by one color?! And with another color - the figure of Mary, light, quiet, divine… Unfortunately it’s absolutely impossible to show his light here (or may be fortunately - then his masterpiece will remain really one). Mary lays like in ortodox icons, shepherds’ faces bent over her with careful respect. There is no source of light in the picture, but faces are lightened. Light as if proceeds from Mary and the Divine Child. Something extraordinary happened but in so quiet atmosphere. And how is adoration is shown? Look. They are above him but adore him and her.
Ursula was last painting of Caravaggio. And here he combined light and sense, getting rid from the unnecessary distances and space. White face of Ursula who refuses the offer of the conqueror to become his wife is like an image of purity and chastity. She looked on at the arrow in her breast not believing to the happening. Hardly recognizable arrow only proves that her martydom is delusive and she will remain alive (in another reality though). What does she think about? And what do we think about her, him?
And colors again! Incredible that they are so bright for so much long time
It was pity that illumination for the paintings was incorrect and didn’t give the opportunity to look at them from any point. Illumination is as a shadow of colors of Caravaggio. Very symbolic.