Light in Caravaggio’s paintings

Miguel Ângelo Merisi, also known as Caravaggio, was a painter who represented passages from the Bible in a dramatic and violent way; but always within the tastes of Italian society in the 16th-17th centuries. Throughout his path as a painter, he managed to prove his artistic value. Indeed, he achieved a reputation among the various courts of Italy and Malta, despite his temperament and his involvement in various fights in Italian neighborhoods.

Chiaroscuro

He was a painter who managed to master chiaroscuro: using contrasts of light and shadow to emphasize the details of gestures or facial expressions. It later influenced many artists throughout Europe. Caravaggio was part of the Cinquecento period, where the first signs of Mannerism[1] had appeared, and the artist was also influenced by Baroque[2], a style of art developed in Rome, by the Catholic Church.

The use of chiaroscuro in Caravaggio’s painting represents certain areas of the obscured areas are larger than those in the areas with light. Certain scholars argued that the artist’s light effect depended on contrast, that is, in Caravaggio’s universe, there cannot be light without darkness, creating an artificial light.

The application of chiaroscuro in painting

There are two terms to describe the application of chiaroscuro in painting.

The first term is chiaroscuro, created by Filippo Baldinucci (1624-1696). It is applied to monochromatic paintings and it aims to fill certain spaces with allegorical figures, suggesting the three-dimensionality of the figure and its respective drapery based on light values -shadow.

Later, this term is replaced by sfumato, which uses a procedure of optics, perspective and chromatism in the service of the pictorial area. It is a technique that corresponds to aesthetics and perceptive reality. Basically, it corresponds to a type of effects that define depth, distance, shape and volume through the distribution of layers, glazes and varnishes, which give tones in the various planes of the composition, making the passage from light to darkness imperceptible.

Caravaggio’s new articulation between light and dark

However, Caravaggio decided to create a new articulation between light and dark. The light was directed from a source, with unknown origin, and whose intensity prevents the existence of clear areas in the painting and makes the bodies bathe in an incised way, which makes the lumps and all kinds of imperfections disappear. John Rupert Martin argues that Caravaggio’s light is from an undefined source and nature and that the artist himself never uses light sources, creating a speculation that the bodies and objects in the composition are their own light source. It is basically a production of the painting’s free will within its own space. Thus, Caravaggio’s light is a denial of physical reality, using a symbolic one to define the volumes.

Caravaggio does not use a universal, but a “night light”; that is the contours between light and shadow create deep and dark shadows, as well as intense lights, but limited in space. As such, the light must be artistic, by simplifying the contrasts of shadow and light, giving rise to the “light style”. There is contempt in chromaticism when accentuating the volumes, as there is the use of contrasts of light and shadow, to bring the volumes closer to the plastic effect, determining an aesthetic character of the shapes.

Bibliography

• ARGAN, Giulio Carlo –Saggi Sul Baroco. Immagine e Persuasion; Feltrinelli, s.l., Novembro de1986
• CONTI, Flavio – Introdução; Pintura in Como Reconhecer a Arte Barroca. Edições 70, Lisboa, Abril de 1984
• GRAHAM-DIXON, Andrew – Caravaggio: Italian Painter [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Caravaggio#ref331704] (27/04/2018; 11h11)
• HAUSER, Arnold – I. O Conceito de Maneirismo: 5. A Unidade do Maneirismo; X. Resumo da História do Maneirismo na Itália: 1 Introdução in Maneirismo a Crise da Renascença e o Surgimento da Arte Moderna. Editora Perspectiva, Editora da Universidade de São Paulo, 1965
• MARTIN, John Ruppert – Introduction; 7. Light: Devine Light; Light as Symbol in Baroque. Style and Civilization, Pelican Books, s.l., 1989
• MILLEN, Ronald e WOLF, Robert Erich – Introduction; Italy in Renaissance and Mannerist Art. Harry N Abrams, Inc, New York, 1968
• PAIS, João Miguel Pereira Correira – Cap V: Uma Só Luz – A Luz “Natural” Entre Continuidade e Mudança: 2. O Maneirismo e a Nova Mimesis; Cap. VII: A Luz na Teoria e Prática Pictórica: 3.1. Caravaggio: a Exaltação da Luz e da Sombra in A Luz na Pintura de Representação: Mito, Representação e Luz na Prática Pictórica [1550-1650], vol. I.  Tese de Doutoramento em Belas-Artes [Especialidade de Pintura]. Faculdade de Belas-Artes, Universidade de Lisboa, 2014[http://repositorio.ul.pt/bitstream/10451/10980/1/ulsd068186_td_vol_1.pdf]
• PARTER, Andreas – Itália: Caravaggio (1573-1610); França: Georges de La Tour (1593-1652); Biografia dos Artistas in A Pintura do Barroco. Épocas & Estilos, Taschen, s.l. 1997
• SHEARMAN, John – Maneirism. Style and Civilization, Penguin Books, s.l., 1967
• VENTURI, Lionello – Cap. V: O Valor Ideal do Realismo Luminista: Caravaggio A Vocação de S. Mateus in Para Compreender a Pintura: De Giotto a Chagall. Editorial Estúdios Cor, Colecção Ideias e Formas, Lisboa, s.d.
• VENTURI, Lionello – Caravaggio in Cuatro Pasos hacia el Arte Moderno: Giorgione; Caravaggio; Manet; Cézanne. Ediciones Nueva Visión Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1960
• VIDAL, Carlos – III A Luz sem nome: 7. A via do “acontecimento”(II); 8. O sfumato estiolado ou o novo infinito; 10. Obscuridade total, luz total (ou a ausência dupla da luz e obscuridade) in Deus e Caravaggio: A Negação do claro-escuro e a Invenção dos corpos compactos. Edições Vendaval, patrocinada pela Direcção Geral do Livro e das Bibliotecas, s.l., 2011
• WALLACE, Robert – III. Caravaggio: Turbulent Genius in The World of Bernini: 1598-1680. The Editors of Time-Life Books; Time-life Library of Art, United States, 1974
• Revista Génios da Pintura nº 69. Abril Cultural, São Paulo, 1968

Notes

[1] The painting abandons the idealized model of Classical Antiquity and the imitation of Nature, to begin to apply the artist’s imagination. This fact influences the entire pictorial composition, namely in the use of light. Instead of using natural light, the artist uses artificial light, which aims to select what he wants to show or hide.

[2] The painting gains the presence of light, which makes it a fundamental element for the mimesis of Nature in painting, despite the fact that light sometimes does not seem natural, transmitting a supernatural phenomenon on the composition of the painting.