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Baroque that was primarily associated with the religious tensions within Western Christianity: division on Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. In response to the Protestant Reformation of the early sixteen century, the Roman Catholic Church had embarked in the 1550s on a program of renewal known as the Counter - Reformation. As part of the program, the Catholic Church used art of the magnificent display for the campaign. It was intended to be both doctrinally correct and visually and emotionally appealing so that it could influence the largest possible audience.
Baroque that use revolutionary technique of dramatic, selective illumination of figures out of deep shadow - a hallmark of Baroque painting. Contrary to the traditional idealized interpretation of religious subjects, Baroque realistically presents models from the streets. Caravaggio is key painter of this form of Baroque.
Caravaggio • Originally named Michelangelo Merisi, Caravaggio was born September 28, 1573, in the Lombardy hill town of Caravaggio
Huge new churches were being built in Rome in the decades of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and paintings were needed to fill them. The Counter-Reformation Church searched for authentic religious art with which to counter the threat of Protestantism. • Caravaggio's novelty was a radical naturalism which combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, approach to chiaroscuro, the use of light and shadow, which almost in all of Caravaggio’s religious subjects emphasize sadness, suffering, and death.
Through the art business Caravaggio met his first patron Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, who secured for him his first public commission. From then on he was flooded by public commissions. Yet because of his violent temper he was constantly in trouble with the law. Since 1600, he is regularly mentioned in police records, is constantly under accusations of assault, libel and other crimes. In 1606, he became involved in murder and had to flee, finding refuge on the estates of Prince Marzio Colonna.
Few artists in history have exercised as extraordinary an influence as this tempestuous and short-lived painter. Caravaggio was destined to turn a large part of European art away from the ideal viewpoint of the Renaissance to the concept that simple reality was of primary importance. He was one of the first to paint people as ordinary looking. • His untimely death in 1610 has puzzled historians for years; guesses ranged from murder to syphilis. But the lethal level of lead in his system, due most likely to the paints he used, is the most probable cause of death.
Sculpture • Baroque sculptures tended to consist of multiple materials (marble, brass, wood….) • Instead of “stand alone” pieces of art, baroque sculptures were placed as to appear is part of a scene, part of the building, or as if the characters are moving out of their places.
