God in the Body │The Physiological Theophany of Caravaggio │Understanding Art
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ต.ค. 2024
- Few artists have been as stormy and boisterous as Caravaggio. His stormy personality may have been the source of his unique style of painting. Caravaggio's paintings are dramatic. Caravaggio's technique creates a vivid reality. Even when he paints seemingly banal scenes, they are propped against a looming in the darkness, the shroud of some kind of lovecraftian eldritch horror pressing in on us. In terms of lighting and color, the images are dark, steeped in shadow. The best descriptor is perhaps to say that his paintings brood.
This is no less true of his religious paintings.
His St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness is dramatically different from contemporary depictions of John by fellow Italian artists Caracci and Albani, and previous paintings by Leonardo da Vinci and Titian.
Caravaggio's John is strangely grim, strangely grim for a young man just on the cusp of high school.
But how old is he really? Is he 16 or 30? Shadow has taken him beyond age. Here is a young man who is weighed down with the gravity of his divine mission. Though a youth, he bears the weight of centuries.
Some 700 years before John the baptist lived, the prophet Isaiah prophesied that God himself would come to earth-somehow, in some form. When the king comes to town, a messenger is sent in front of him to prepare the people, because the king after all, deserves their acknowledgment, but more importantly, they need to get out of his way, clear the crowd, get out of the way. The messenger cries for the crowd to be parted. But When God comes to town, well, then the messenger cries for the valleys to be lifted up, the mountains to be leveled-not because God might be hindered, but because there must be no obstruction when the glory of the Yahweh shines.
Every Jew of the first century would have known this, including John, and moreover, his parents would have pointed to him and said-that is you-you are the one to clear the path for Yahweh-you and you alone.
I think it's bold for a painter to try and portray the truth of a human being, let alone a young human being, who faces the grim task of God before him. Kierkegaard often maintained that when a person gets involved with God, life becomes infinitely more difficult and strenuous-glorious, yes, but infinitely more strenuous. For Caravaggio to attempt to portray that is in and of itself the kind of brilliant insight that occurs only to geniuses-and to actually pull it off so that we feel and see that God-relationships is beyond astounding.
I can't help describing this painting as existential. Caravaggio biographer Peter Robb says, The painting demonstrates Caravaggio's "feeling for the drama of the human presence.” It is assertive. The painting claims the art museum for its own.
So few art reviewers would take the intrinsic religious meaning seriously today.
You're review is beautiful & profound. It is long past time we stopped listening to the modernists & reviewed works in formal technical & physical terms. The ideas conveyed through the work are fundamental to what such an artist was doing.
You're my new favourite thing on yt, I hope it's gonna last very long
The way you said Yahweh hit me like a ton of bricks I don't know why but it just did
your work has moved me. You have made me aware of this beautiful affliction in my soul, this longing, which will either destroy me, or guide me to my salvation.
Who are you? What is your background? This content is amazing and I would love to know what kind of life has led you to have this mind.
Also please start a patreon so that we can support you.
Same here
This is got to be one of the greatest art analysis videos I’ve seen yet, and hearing your talk on the John painting was just remarkable, your words painted a picture as gregarious as the one you were describing
Incredible, you should do a series on art pieces through the ages.
I will be watching over and over. I've seen the Caravaggio St. John in person. The gravitas of your analysis tells me I need to go back and look again. Because I missed most everything. Thanx.
If ever there were unassailable proof that deeply flawed people, bordering on dangerous and antisocial, could open up windows for us into the sublime and Divine it's Caravaggio.
P.S. Caravaggio definitely deserves a Ninja Turtle, but the turtles are named after Renaissance artists, whereas Caravaggio is Baroque, like another giant, Bernini.
The person behind this channel has a peculiarly refined mind.
I will take that as a compliment....
@@EmpireoftheMind you should do a video on the dichotomy between liberty - i.e. ordered freedom - and license.
I’ve been wanting to do some videos on liberty-I feel like I have a lot of research left to do. Are you interested in liberty and license more in terms of politics, or in society generally, or in morality, etc.? (Or is there another aspect that I’m forgetting? It’s a pretty broad topic lol)
@@EmpireoftheMind I'd like to see some discussion about this confused idea that so many people seem to have, that we are all entitled to safety and security provided by government in a nation that was intended to be free of tyranny and control. How over the decades, the last 100 years in particular, we have fallen asleep at the political wheel and wound up with an enormous group of people who value dependency on a government, who is well known to bully other parts of the world, for safety. And elected officials that have zero accountability for their action or inaction. Career politicians that live far better than most by telling "free" people what they may or may not do with their lives.
@@rybaneightsix5085 I’ve got some essays in the works right along these lines. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish them up and get them out pretty soon.
Beautiful... I love your content...! Very valuable..
You just had to use the Master and commander ost, aren't you?
A masterpiece of a video.
I appreciate it greatly when I am shown a new perspective. I appreciate it more when it is done through one's personal interpretation of beauty. I will never look at Caravaggio again as I did before. Thank you.
Did not expect John the Baptist, as the man of my own namesake to be so incredibly relatable directly to a spiritual level. This video is great and so is that painting, I love it.
Beautiful articulation on a profound work of art.
Thanks for showcasing this particular Caravaggio painting, which I’ve never seen before. I’ve been drawn to his work because of its visceral immediacy. Your analysis has made me see Caravaggio in a new light (no pun intended), as a believer as well as a brawler. He couldn’t have painted religious figures like John with such insight and intensity otherwise.
God, your videos are a work of art. Thankyou for being you and having this channel.its a treasure.
I think each of your words has weight and your thoughts reach far into the depths of the soul.
Thanks for your work.
Stunned. For now the long shadows of those dwelling on mountain peaks, throttling light through high snowy passes falls over us mortals below. The divine magnified by eagles bids us come nigh. EOTM fly on…
Thank you for this video, I deeply love many things you said
Thank you for the tour to the wilderness of Judea🙏🙏 Thank you for the existential wake up!🙏🙏
Knowing God makes life more difficult. Yes.
To me, the battle between good and evil in your heart begins.
It left an impression on me and it was just from this video. Can't imagine in person. Art was amazing back in the old world days
Where can one see it in person? I thought you might have given us that info above but no...
For those like me who wonder...it is at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.
I found this thooughly absorbing, thank you for your explanation of Caravagggio's work and
his complicated persona. I've subscribed and look forward to seeing your other videos, also!
This is what social media could be,
if only...
Thanks for the journey into this painting.
Amazing! I feel this youtube channel is becoming the best class I have attended to in my life!
Very thought provoking observations. The painting makes you wonder what John was thinking about.
Thank you! Indeed it does...
@@EmpireoftheMind Just one more thought. Think of all the great men who ever lived and think of what Jesus said about John.
Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
But I guess that observation is more about the subject of the painting than the artist.
Good things to keep in mind. If I remember correctly, this painting was meant to hang above an alter in a chapel. I’m sure that it was designed to inspire people who worshipped there to reflect on themselves, comparing and contrasting themselves with John in light of what Jesus said.
Beautiful analysis. Thank you
Caravaggio was always my favorite 🥰
Absolutely riveting discussion, really exceptional, and I studied art history with some very fine teachers.
My first exposure to Caravaggio was seeing the St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness when I visited an art museum. Of all the pieces I saw that day, it was easily the one that left an impression on me.
Really good work, any chance you can post the music you used? i think i´ve heard in in a Terry Malick film, thanks!
Absolutely beautiful.
Where is your Patreon sir? I need to throw money at your content!
Another phenomenal video. How do you do that?
I loved this one, thank you!
Wow, I can only say wow!
Stunning
Fantastic.
Beautiful. Keep going dude! Keep writing!
Soli Deo gloria, I spy with my little eye Eph 1:10, great video!
Thank you my friend! Not much gets past you.
Wow, a revelation of sorts...
This one was good.
Where this guy gone. No more content since a year
I enjoyed this video, but it is misleading for anybody who doesn't know art history. Caravaggio did not invent this dark look (it is called Tenebrism)-painters in the north were using it 150 years before Caravaggio was born. As for the inherent violence, Christian painting has always been replete with violent executions. However, it IS true that such a "look" would appeal to Caravaggio's character.
We must remember, too, that Caravaggio always did as his patrons told him: if they wanted some pretty boys, he painted some pretty boys for them; if they wanted gruesome violence, that's what he painted. There are several instances of him completely re-painting a commission if his client didn't like his first try. He was a professional artist and always did what his client told him to do ("professional" MEANS painting for money). It's interesting to note that he became the highest paid artist in Italy by the end of his short life.
I just discovered your Channel and love your videos. Very well done. They are helping me to detox from my addiction to politics and watching western civilization be dismantled. I have a few questions for you Sir:
1) I would love to see this painting in person; where is it located?
2) What happened to the Master and Commander Video? That is what led me to your channel
3) Why is contemporary Christian art sooo bad?
Thanks
Thank you sir! I’m glad you’re detoxing from politics. I’m doing the same! In answer to your questions:
1) It is located at the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum in Kansas City. Great museum, with pieces ranging from Rembrandt, to Hals, Van Gogh, Gaugin, Cezanne, Titian, etc. And it’s free to enter if you can find a place to park on the street. Highly recommend, though I’m not sure what lockdown restrictions may still be in place in that city.
2) It was blocked by the studio on copyright grounds. I have appealed it on the basis of fair use, and it is back up again. Hopefully they will recognize it as fair use; if not, they may issue a take-down request.
3) That I cannot completely answer in a single comment. I suppose it would depend on what kind of art you are referring to. If you’re referring to visual art/painting, I don’t have much knowledge of that area. If I were to guess I’d say (1) I think it’s a symptom of the greater state of art at present: most art right now is very bad: there are no Renaissance masters anymore. (2) Many Christian artists probably feel bound to advance certain dogma/assertions (which are important: if everyone doesn’t have some kind of dogma, they ought to), at the expense of authentically representing reality as it is. This is definitely true, I think, for Christian movies. They represent the world as those Christians think it ought to be, and not as it is. If you have a specific kind of Christian artwork in mind, let me know.
Thanks for watching!
@@EmpireoftheMind Re: Item #3, I was thinking about painting, and specifically relative to the Caravaggio painting that you were discussing. Caravaggio captured an aspect of experiencing God that does not fit into the contemporary Christian art (like Thomas Kinkade) and certainly does not fit into contemporary secular art. I'm picturing the plastic smile of Joel Olsen and people like him who deny the reality of how hard it is to live in this fallen world.
I was thinking of how Kierkegaard explored what Abraham might have felt when he was tested with the awful task of sacrificing his son. I wonder how John must have felt when he was tested with imprisonment and thinking that he might have been wrong about the identity of Jesus. How did he go from "Behold the Lamb of God" to "should we look for another?" The look on John's face in the Caravaggio painting makes me think that this is the moment that is being captured. John thinking "Was I wrong?" and "Am I going to die for nothing?"
@@WPAYTTS I wasn’t aware Kinkade was a Christian... His art definitely seems to represent a (too) comfortable kind of world. I will mention two modern Christian artists who have received critical acclaim: Makoto Fujimura & Sadao Watanabe. The former practiced a kind of folk art and the latter specializes in abstract Impressionism. I don’t care for either, but you may find more authenticity in them than in Kinkade, if you are interested. Kierkegaard was courageous enough to be honest about the world & the life of faith. So too Dostoevsky: his Brothers Karamazov had a profound effect on me, as did Shusaku Endo’s novel Silence. Such authenticity is thoroughly biblical. The Bible is a gritty, honest text from beginning to end.
This painting reminds of Saint John's description in the Quran :
(O John, hold on to the scripture firmly; while he was still a boy, We granted him wisdom.)
Mary - 12
"Fear hearing the tread of God in your life."
-----There are times in life when we are listening to something beyond us. That painting seems to me to be John listening the Divine voice in his own heart. That is a very dangerous thing to do.
One thing no one feels to mention is how the staff doesnt touch the ground, it disappears before making contact, what does it mean?
What music is playing in the background?
🙏
for godsake man, link music you use in your videos, It kills me more than the content.
Wow. I wish I was that aware and sensible.
What's the name of the music?
Caravaggio a good name for a son!
In my solitude.
Woken from a dull dream with a slap from God... on TH-cam.
Surprised you didn't reference the Gospel of Matthew, "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed those who soft garments are in the houses of kings."
So beautiful with wonderful narrator voice take me to another unknown world
I agree but would extrapolate on the attitude of those "Called" as John was. To be called is not to be prepared. John's years in the wilderness (so graphically interpreted in the painting) were a process to ready him for the calling. Here he is not yet ready. Still youthful and struggling. Still unaware of the ramifications of coming to the end of himself. It has vaguely occurred to him but he has not yet embraced his own futility in the preparation. What he HAS grasped is that it is entirely possible for him to fail.
Outfuckingstanding. Loved every second
The dispassionate face of St. John here is reminiscent of Orthodox iconography in which all saints and Christ are depicted. They are neither smiling or frowning, they are dispassionate to this world.
RIP to all the Kings who’ve mistaken the friendliness of a woman for flirtation. F in chat.
Dude
Technically his name is Michelangelo, sooooooo
Pronounce it cara-VAH-joe
The letter i is silent
Technically he was very unusual. Almost all painters at the time avoided using black instead choosing dark purple. He poured it on.
Also most painters would do an under drawing that we can see with an x ray. There’s no evidence he ever did that. Quite a feat.
I've got a copy of Caravaggio's The Calling of Matthew right next to me. A lot of people claim Matthew is the bearded man 'pointing at himself,' but I insist Matthew is the shadowed figure obsessing over his coins and that the bearded man is pointing at him as if to ask, "him? really?"
Whom do you think is Matthew there?
Also a lesser known painting that I think you might enjoy is Gustave Surand's "Prayer Against Temptation" if you wanna give that a quick googling.
My apologies for the constant comments but I'm really enjoying your channel even though I'm afraid to click "The Genius of K-POP" lol
I’ve always liked that interpretation you just gave... the idea of being called by someone you have no awareness of. It goes back to Michelangelo’s portrayal of Adam & God-the finger of Caravaggio’s Christ mirrors the finger of Michelangelo’s God-the touch will give Awareness, Consciousness, the image of God in man-in Caravaggio, the call is about to restore the Awareness, the image that is broken, consumed in coins.
I have a hard time making up my mind myself which man is Matthew. I go back and forth. And I often wonder if Caravaggio left it intentionally ambiguous.
That painting by Surand is beautiful. I’m going to have spend some time thinking about that one. Thanks for introducing it to me.
Keep the comments coming. I need all the positive interaction I can get on here.
If you don’t like The Genius of K-Pop, I’ll eat my hat.
Why do you apologize for constant comments?
I like the video but compare this painting to the other John the Baptist paintings by Caravaggio. In them he expresses a wide range of emotions: excitement, boredom, sleep, and even thirst. The ideas you make in this video on the painting based on life of John don’t apply there. Could that mean that the same take aways you make in this video could simply apply to anyone in contemplation? We see in Caravaggio’s other paintings that John wasn’t constantly so altered and burdened by the divine, so how do you reconcile those with the ideas you state in your video?
He wasn’t murdered, died of led poisoning… from his paints, this was discovered back in 2010