New Artwork/ Quote of the Week 4.3.2011

Since last week I went all post-modern with the art, I think that this week is a great time to turn the clock back. All the way back to the Baroque! So for this week, we have two firsts: first Italian artist and first Baroque-era painting! With no further delay, I present to you Caravaggio's The Calling of Saint Matthew:

The Calling of Saint Matthew, Caravaggio. 1599-1600.

Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome.

I am particularly fond of the Baroque Period (despite its obvious failing that is isn't Medieval) for all of its realism and manipulation of light and such. Something that I think is funny about paintings from this period is that even though the subject of this painting is very much not contemporary, the entirety of the setting (including the clothes and such) are. Maybe Caravaggio really thought that fashion, housing, etc. hadn't changed at all in the intervening centuries between the actual calling of Matthew and 1600 AD. Maybe he was lazy? Maybe he just figured people looking at the painting wouldn't be able to guess what what going on in the picture if he gave them time-and location-appropriate details.

Another cool feature of this painting you might notice is its use of light. See how the light seems to come from some point off to the right? Well, where the painting is installed in the chapel, there actually happens to be a window off to the right. So, Caravaggio painted the light in his picture with this in mind, which would make it all that much more realistic hanging on the wall in the chapel. Crazy, huh?

Always last, but never least, is the Quote of the Week:

"One must from time to time attempt things that are beyond one's capacity."   

-Pierre August Renoir

This quote really appeals to me. Not (as you might think) because I frequently believe things are beyond my capacity (research, essays, getting a job, etc), but because of the story behind it. Around the time when he said this, Renoir faced horrible rheumatoid arthritis and worsening deformities in his hands and shoulders. For someone who had spent their entire life painting, this must have been incredibly difficult to deal with. He had to change the whole way he went about painting- he even had to have an assistant put the paintbrush in his hands. Despite all this, he still continued to paint. He lived that way for the last 27 years of his life, which I think is admirable.