Art plays a significant part in people’s lives. Art inspires people, gives them some new ideas, or just entertains. The relations inside the art community are also very difficult. Some artists influence others, and some are influenced by. The process is much interconnected, as some artists have already gained success, and the others are only at their start. Some artists, more experienced, become examples for others and objects of inspiration. So, it is not a surprise that some works of young artists may remind the paintings of more experienced.
The history of art knows two painters whose names were Michelangelo: Michelangelo Buonarroti, simply known as Michelangelo, and Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, known as Caravaggio. Caravaggio wanted to make Christian history more understandable for people and used religious subjects as the themes for his paintings. (Stokstad 2004)
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) was considered to be one of the great figures, an example for others in Italian painting. This Italian artist remains an example for many other young artists even now when so much time has passed. There is such a definition as “the Caravaggeschi”. This definition is referred to other artists who imitate Caravaggio’s themes, figure types, and evocative handling of light and dark. We way name such artists as Carlo Saraceni, Diego Velazquez, Georges de la Tour, and Jusepe de Ribera, and lots of others, who kept Caravaggio’s influence alive well into the seventeenth century. (Wilkin 2000)
“The consolation of Caravaggio’s paintings is the assurance that every sin is known and registered” (Danto 2002). Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s paintings are closely connected with religion, and religion is the immortal theme for art. In one of his paintings, Caravaggio “has composed the scene within a canvas far wider than it is high, to put as much distance between Judith and the victim as possible” (Danto 2002).
Georges de la Tour and Rembrandt are often called the Caravaggio’s followers. Pictures of Caravaggio which we created on his post-Roman travels may seem for somebody churlish, “amid the selection of so much glory, to cavil at a single omission” (Rosenthal 2001).
Georges de la Tour, Rembrandt, Franz Hals, and Velasquez were influenced by Caravaggio’s works years after his early death, they “continued to succumb to the powerful influence of his combination of brutal naturalism with what must now be called a cinematic sense of staging” (Wilkin 2002).
The artists copied much of Caravaggio’s works, hid themes, his way of painting, the use of color, shade and others. Their works were something different from their idle, but still it is very easy to follow the common features.
Velasquez’ Las Meninas is a painting, in which the artist “paints himself into the frame” (Kumbier 2001). Velasquez does not make any tries to explain what he wanted to show or to tell with his work, he gives it to us, to the viewers.
So, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was a great artist who was the example, the model for inspiration and the teacher of many European artists such as, Georges de la Tour, Rembrandt, Franz Hals, and Velasquez. They created their paintings much like Caravaggio’s in the items of themes, color, and other items which could be copied. Caravaggio left a lot of followers after him who continued to create and support his ideas during the seventeenth century.
Works Cited
Danto, Arthur C. “Artemisia and the Elders.” The Nation. 2002
Kumbier, William. “Besonnenheit, Ekphrasis and the Disappearing Subject in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s “Die Fermate”.” Criticism. 2001.
Rosenthal, Tom. “Rome Sweet Rome.” New Statesman. 2001.
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. Prentice Hall, 2004.
Wilkin, Karen. “Father & Daughter at the Met.” New Criterion. 2002.
Wilkin, Karen. “Two Views of Caravaggio.” New Criterion. 2000.