Monday, June 15, 2015

Lesson 2 - Schama - Caravaggio

This video, guided to us by Simon Schama, revolves around the life of Michelangelo Merisi di Caravaggio,  who is not only a genius but in this case the villain as well, and his most renowned work, David with the Head of Goliath.

The most interesting person in this video is of course Caravaggio. In the opening scenes of this video, Schama prompts a question being why did Caravaggio paint himself as the severed head of Goliath in the hands of David? It was known to be his way of "painting his way out of trouble", which in his case happened a lot. He was a dangerous man with a brilliant mind in the artistic world because it his through his paintings that shows the push to a naturalistic approach and the theatrics of lighting.

One of the most interesting things I heard throughout this video was when Schama stated, "“For me the power of Caravaggio’s art is the power of truth, not least about ourselves. If we are ever to hope for redemption, we have to begin with the recognition that in all of us, the Goliath competes with the David.” Because he was going for a more naturalistic appeal to his paintings and giving an earthy and physical detail, by Caravaggio placing himself in that painting he is manifesting the internal struggle he has with his sinful and earthly existence, which then promptly answers the question Schama had proposed to us in the beginning of the documentary.

This documentary was interesting to watch because it provided reenactments of Caravaggio's life giving a firsthand experience and an accurate visualization of what it was really like, rather than just hearing about from historians.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Michelangelo_Caravaggio_071.jpg
This is Caravaggio's painting "David with the Head of Goliath" 

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