Editing Caravaggio (section)

=== The birth of Baroque ===
[[File:Caravaggio - Cena in Emmaus.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''[[Supper at Emmaus (London) (Caravaggio)|Supper at Emmaus]]'', 1601, oil on canvas, {{convert|139|x|195|cm|0|abbr=on}}, [[National Gallery]], London. Self-portrait of Caravaggio as the figure at the top left.]]

Caravaggio "put the oscuro (shadows) into [[chiaroscuro]]".<ref>Lambert, p.11.</ref> Chiaroscuro was practised long before he came on the scene, but it was Caravaggio who made the technique a dominant stylistic element, darkening the shadows and transfixing the subject in a blinding shaft of light. With this came the acute observation of physical and psychological reality that formed the ground both for his immense popularity and for his frequent problems with his religious commissions.

He worked at great speed, from live models, scoring basic guides directly onto the canvas with the end of the brush handle; very few of Caravaggio's drawings appear to have survived, and it is likely that he preferred to work directly on the canvas, an unusual approach at the time. His models were basic to his realism; some have been identified, including [[Mario Minniti]] and [[Francesco Boneri]], both fellow artists, Minniti appearing as various figures in the early secular works, the young Boneri as a succession of angels, Baptists and Davids in the later canvasses. His female models include [[Portrait of a Courtesan (Caravaggio)|Fillide Melandroni]], [[Martha and Mary Magdalene (Caravaggio)|Anna Bianchini]], and Maddalena Antognetti (the "Lena" mentioned in court documents of the "artichoke" case<ref>Much of the documentary evidence for Caravaggio's life in Rome comes from court records; the "artichoke" case refers to an occasion when the artist threw a dish of hot artichokes at a waiter.</ref> as Caravaggio's concubine), all well-known prostitutes, who appear as female religious figures including the Virgin and various saints.<ref>Robb, ''passim'', makes a fairly exhaustive attempt to identify models and relate them to individual canvases.</ref> Caravaggio himself appears in several paintings, his final self-portrait being as the witness on the far right to the ''[[The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula (Caravaggio)|Martyrdom of Saint Ursula]]''.<ref>Caravaggio's self-portraits run from the ''Sick Bacchus'' at the beginning of his career to the head of Goliath in the ''David with the Head of Goliath'' in Rome's Borghese Gallery. Previous artists had included self-portraits as onlookers to the action, but Caravaggio's innovation was to include himself as a participant.</ref>
[[File:The Taking of Christ-Caravaggio (c.1602).jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.2|''[[The Taking of Christ]]'', 1602, [[National Gallery of Ireland]], Dublin. The [[chiaroscuro]] shows through on the faces and armour even in the absence of a visible shaft of light. The figure on the extreme right is a self-portrait.]]

Caravaggio had a noteworthy ability to express in one scene of unsurpassed vividness the passing of a crucial moment. ''[[Supper at Emmaus (London) (Caravaggio)|The Supper at Emmaus]]'' depicts the recognition of Christ by his disciples: a moment before he is a fellow traveller, mourning the passing of the Messiah, as he never ceases to be to the innkeeper's eyes; the second after, he is the Saviour. In ''[[The Calling of St Matthew]]'', the hand of the Saint points to himself as if he were saying, "who, me?", while his eyes, fixed upon the figure of Christ, have already said, "Yes, I will follow you". With ''[[The Raising of Lazarus (Caravaggio)|The Resurrection of Lazarus]]'', he goes a step further, giving a glimpse of the actual physical process of resurrection. The body of Lazarus is still in the throes of [[rigor mortis]], but his hand, facing and recognising that of Christ, is alive. Other major [[Baroque]] artists would travel the same path, for example [[Bernini]], fascinated with themes from [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]''.{{sfn|Thornhill|2015|p=Foreword}}