Another Look at Caravaggio and Religion

• Autores: Joseph F. Chorpenning
• Localización: Artibus et historiae: an art anthology, ISSN 0391-9064, Nº. 16, 1987, págs. 149-158
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article, the point of departure for which is W. Friedlaender's controversial hypothesis that there is an affinity between Caravaggio's altarpieces and the spirituality of St. Philip Neri and Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, is divided into two parts. In part I, after a summary of the state of the question of this hypothesis and its reception, there is a critique of several ideas of Friedlaender, his supporters, and his critics: Caravaggio was probably introduced to the Exercises by the Augustinians, not the Oratorians; the Exercises are not the only place where the artist could have come into contact with the meditative practices of the composition of place and application of the senses; and although the Oratorians and Jesuits may have found Caravaggio's breaches of decorum offensive, that does not mean that the artist did not respond to and internalize elements of the spirituality of Neri and Loyola. Part II puts forth the view that the hallmarks of Caravaggio's altarpieces identified by Friedlaender and other - the direct contact the artist establishes between the sacred scene and the spectator and his consistent humanization of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints, as well as populating his religious paintings with apparently poor, common and very human types - are primarily Caravaggio's artistic response to, and interpretation of, Counter-Reformation meditative practices. This view is substantiated by an examination of Caravaggio's religious art in relation to the liturgical context for which it was intended and the liturgical piety of his age, of which his meditative prayer was an integral part.