Large Interior 175 (Richard), by Jude Rae

Large Interior 175 (Richard), 2005, Oil on linen,
1800mm x 1200mm, James Wallace Collection, Auckland, NZ.

No, this isn’t a Vermeer or Caravaggio – you can tell by the watch and T-short it’s not an old master – this is the work of NZ artist Jude Rae, now living in Canberra.

Can you see why I was so excited when I discovered it over the weekend?

‘St Francis in Meditation’ by Michelangelo Caravaggio

The internet has opened up a virtual cornucopia of art history to anyone with the curiosity to seek it out. But it’s still virtually impossible to convey the brilliance of Michelangelo Caravaggio by way of a picture on the internet—impossible because his method of layering his paint and leaving them partially transparent means that when seen in the original his figures look not so much like paintings as three-dimensional holographs.

This St Francis is just another electrifying figure from Caravaggio’s brush that translates very poorly to a blog post. But here it is, nonetheless, because my memory of it makes it one of the most memorable paintings of the nobility of man I’ve seen.

St Jerome - Caravaggio

With Caravaggio comes an unsurpassed ability to convey three dimensions with paint.

It’s not so much what he painted, which is almost always a subject less than admirable, as the way his subject was presented.  He didn’t present his subjects so much as project them.

See how the figure of St Jerome emerges out of the darkness almost as a hologram—as a fully-rounded figure with a fully noble presence--that’s the imagery Caravaggio managed to convey in a two-dimensional canvas.

He had an unmatched talent put to a less than admirable use.

REPRISE: 'Conversion of St Paul' - Caravaggio

'The Conversion of St Paul' - Caravaggio, 1601. Caravaggio has undeniable depth and power; his subjects have all three dimensions; they springout of the canvas with real strength and drama -- something just a little hard to convey in an electronic reproduction unfortunately. Seen 'live,' the best Caravaggio canvasses are like seeing a brightly lit hologram. His aesthetic was almost antithetical to the prevailing mannerism of the period, a fresh and honest approach that helped destroy the fussiness of the mannerists; he focussed on the essentials of the composition, paring it down to the reality of objects in space.

TAGS: Art

The Martyrdom of St Matthew - Caravaggio

'The Martyrdom of St Matthew,' by the 'Italian Rembrandt Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1671-1610) -- a suitably cathartic image perhaps to reflect present events.

  TAGS: Art

'The Sacrifice of Isaac' - Caravaggio.

'The Sacrifice of Isaac,' by Caravaggio. 1603.

And such a lovely story too: "Take thee thy son," says God to Abraham, "and offer him ... for a burnt offering." So there you are - your knife's out -- your son's heads on the block -- you're all ready to go, and comes the word from God: "Huh, I was just kidding."

 God, isn't he a scream, eh?


LINKS: Genesis 22:2-13 - Skeptics Annotated Bible TAGS: Art, Religion