Rubens, Caravaggio, and Bernini Baroque Artists

Artworks Caravaggio: Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi -- "The Calling of St. Matthew" Caravaggio has painted a Baroque masterpiece that depicts the reality of being a tax collector at the moment when Matthew is called by Christ to be a disciple.

He looks up from the table where the "seedy" business of money collection is taking place and has an almost "incredulous" look in his eyes -- as if to say, "You want me?" Few people notice the presence of Our Lord -- the scene is dark -- but split down the middle, with Christ's emergence drawing the line between the light and the dark. A shaft of light falls on St. Matthew.

The video is very informative and gives a good take on the situation, providing context for the painting both as Caravaggio painted it and as it hangs in the chapel.

The presenters discuss the significance of the moment in the painting: the characters at the tax table are wealthy, worldly -- their clothing is rich and fine -- and the startling contrast comes in the form of Christ who is spiritual, humble: this seemingly unreal spiritual moment is actually happening to a man whose soul has never really been part of anything spiritual before.

So the scene conveys a certain shock value and the presenters do well in pointing this out in the video as being a characteristic of Baroque art -- a sense of that dramatic moment when the spiritual calling occurs -- "the merging of the real and the divine." The same is felt in the center canvas depicting Matthew writing the Gospel and being directed by the angel -- Caravaggio's reaction is very human; nothing is idealized.

Caravaggio: "Death of the Virgin" In this painting, Caravaggio depicts another very spiritual scene "but brings it down to earth" so that it is in "everyday language" -- the tone of the painting is dark, dark colors overwhelm the canvas.

The story being told here is the death of the Virgin Mary, mother of God -- yet Caravaggio does so in a way that "rejects the elegance of the High Renaissance" and places the story firmly in "our world," emphasizing the lowly aspects of the Apostles (their bald heads, their poverty) and painting the Virgin in a way that she resembled (at least to the monks at the time) a drowned prostitute pulled from the river.

The video does a very good job of pointing out how Caravaggio's composition leads the eye from the hanging drapes overhead to the reflected and inverted curve of the drapes in the Apostle's domes down to the Virgin's body and her broken wrist, ending the eye's journey at the bare shoulders of the weeping handmaiden, suggesting that this is the posture the painter believes we the viewer should have when meditating on this mystery. Bernini: "Ecstasy of St.

Teresa" Bernini uses gilding, stained glass, colored marble and painted fresco in this exhibit to convey the spiritual ecstasy of St. Teresa, canonized a saint by the Church in the 17th century -- and a fitting subject for the Baroque artist. The presenters read an excerpt from St. Teresa's own writings depicting her spiritual ecstasy and they correspond to the visual style that Bernini uses to express this overwhelming, passionate love of God and faith.

That was one of the main purposes of the Baroque artists, as the presenters point out -- to inspire religious faith. The video is very helpful for giving background information on Bernini, on his deep religious convictions, which helped him to present St. Teresa's vision with such power. The angel smiles as he directs an arrow towards Teresa's heart; she represents the agony and love that underlines the relationship between God and man. The work elegantly realizes this relationship.

Bernini: "David" Bernini's David represents David facing off against Goliath -- but unlike Michelangelo's David, where the young future King is tall, erect, confidant, reflective -- Bernini's David is caught in mid-action, poised to hurl a rock at the giant's head: it is full of pent-up fury and energy.

It is symbolic of the Baroque -- the drama of the times in full-swing; David is leaning back with his sling, a look of determined and fierce concentration on his arm; his body is twirling like a tornado about to slam down on whatever is in its path. The sculpture exhibits tension and several crossings -- the arms crossing the body, the cloth crossing the legs, the torso twisting to the side.

The video pays special attention to these fine details, comparing it to Michelangelo's sculpture and showing how it is representative of Bernini at his finest. Bernini's David is "like a spring wound up" that is set to unleash a new force upon the enemies of God. Peter Paul Rubens:.