Caravaggio and Michelangelo: artistic responses to the Counter-Reformation

Baroque

Caravaggio v. Michelangelo: What is occurring in the culture that would make an emotional, dramatic appeal interesting to the patrons of the arts?

Caravaggio created his work during the Counter-Reformation, after the Protestant Revolution, unlike Michelangelo. The Catholic Church desired to counteract Protestantism by creating a sparer and more individualistic form of Christianity, while still retaining its power. This is reflected in the art of the period, as Caravaggio's use of tenebrism makes the figure of Saul, and the story of Saul, more important to the picture, rather than simply celebrating the human body like the Renaissance-era artist Michelangelo. The greater interest in the individual explains why Caravaggio created his work to highlight Saul's wrestling with his inner self. This would have been interesting to the patrons of the art than simply depicting his conversion scene as a conversion of light. The focus of Caravaggio is on the human being, and on Saul, while Michelangelo's vision depicts a panorama of humanity, and focuses on the figure of God in the sky. God looks human, but is beautiful and perfect, unlike Caravaggio's struggling Saul, who is very recognizably human and real.

Messiah:" What major cultural events could we say contribute to this rise of the individual?

Although oratorios were not staged like operas, they were composed many individual songs pieces when the singers would take on the roles of different characters. The focus was on the individual singer, not the chorus. Even the "Hallelujah" chorus is a chorus sung in the name of Christ's birth, a specific event in the life of Christ's story, not an abstract idea like a song that is just about the general glory of God.