FILM 5: Caravaggio/Schama

According to Columbia University's website, Simon Schama is a British art historian and a Professor of Art and Art History at Columbia University. He is also an art and cultural critic for The New Yorker. He has written many books and appeared throughout the United States and United Kingdom as well. He won over fifteen prizes and honors including those of New York Times Best Books of the Year, and National Book Critics Circle Award. He’s kind of a big deal. I definitely think we should believe his stories.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/arthistory/faculty/Schama.html

One of the paintings that I liked the most was, “The Death of Mary.” Because of the belief that the Son of Mary was not born by flesh, Caravaggio’s painting represented that Mary’s death was not by flesh. The first thing I saw was Mary laid dead, kind of sprawled out. The lighting on Mary’s body is very light, her skin is green. The next thing that drew my attention was the apostles all gathered around her body. They look distraught and upset by this sight. They’re bodies are in darker lighting, with a dark background as well. The belief is that Mary is asleep in the painting because she is leaving not in flesh but in soul. They are so upset because she is living the mortal world, which is reason enough to mourn. This painting controls my eye simply by color. I was drawn by the lighter colors and the sight of Mary laying there dead. Caravaggio used this lighting to draw the viewers’ attention to her body. He made this painting to merge together the ideas of past and present. It was rejected, which made his life spiral into a bunch of disastrous events thereafter.

The storyteller chose to use such dramatic lighting and theatrical reenactments because it gave Caravaggio the image that he was trying to portray. He wanted the light to be used to get the viewers into the moment rather than just looking at it. The dramatic lighting and the way we saw Caravaggio interact with others and his paintings gave me an eerie feeling. I think this was effective in the sense that I understood his art better. The light and dark in his paintings illuminates the focal point and how we should view Caravaggio’s life as well. His life was full of disorder and dark times, which are brought through in his paintings. This makes the story a lot more believable. It gives distinct images and sheds light on the feelings that went into the paintings. I also liked the theatrical moments, especially when they reenacted what’s going on in Caravaggio’s life as well as some of the paintings. I could feel the emotion and it gave a better insight as to what was going on in his life at the time.

What is your opinion of Caravaggio's life?