How Did Caravaggio’s Art Contribute To Salvation? The list of the Protestant beliefs were salvation is gained through faith. The Bible is the only source where an individual can find the truth. The concept of priests or the Churches had the power over an individual relationship with God is against the bible. All Christians have a direct connect to God through faith and the Bible.
This belief system was called the Protestantism founded by Martin Luther, who broke out of the Catholic Church system. This cause the Catholic Church to set and strengthen their position to face the rise of the protestant. This defense of the Church was organized by the Council of Trent. In fact, the Council of Trent created The Counter-Reformation which brought the idea that the power of Mannerism painting and religious art would be relevant.
Therefore, the Church council created the Counter Reformation to influence many Italian painters like Caravaggio to paint a numerous Mannerist painting and religious art, such as The Calling of Saint Matthew painting and The crucifixion of saint peter painting represented reformation art The Council of Trent was a group of council of the Catholic Church with the motivation of restoring the faith of the church by coming up with a Counter Reformation of art.
The church payed many painters to particularly focus their painting mainly on a Catholicism perspective and biblical art. These artists had to follow many rules. For example, artists had to focus their painting mainly on the Saint and also Virgin Mary, their painting had been a direct and clear scene or a story from the bible, their painting had to be motivational and spiritual, and also their painting had to be understandable by most people Caravaggio was one of the great painters up for that job.
He was a painter whose directness and closeness of his aintings really differentiate his work and put him as one of the greatest painters of Rome Caravaggio’s art was a great representation of the Counter-Reformation of art because he also introduce the Mannerism style in his painting. He brought great naturalistic and direct perspective to his painting which provide great representation of the reformation throughout Rome. In addition to his naturalistic and direct approach, Caravaggio’s other perspective in his painting was the way he used chiaroscuro which bring out great drama, and also a theatrical point of view in his painting.
Caravaggio painted many painting for several patronage in Rome especially for the church. The Calling of Saint Matthew painting was one of the great work he did. In this painting, Caravaggio demonstrated a Biblical scene where Jesus approached a table with group of man that was counting money. They were tax collectors that were accused of stealing money from many people. Jesus called one of the man name Matthew in the group and told him to follow him.
This painting was very direct because of Caravaggio expressed a technique called chiaroscuro (light and shadow) His used of light and shadow in the painting becomes very important and remained a great characteristic throughout the painting. The lighting in the painting is significant because it demonstrates great emotions in Matthew face when Jesus pointed at him, the lighting also showed in the other men faces of how they felt about Jesus pointing out Matthew. Some men ignored him because they were more focus on the coins on the table which all can be identify by the significance of the lighting.
The lighting also brings out a great definition of what’s going on in the painting. For example, the light shown to be in Jesus face, but it gradually moves left toward Matthew face. The light is basically expressing the two main characters in the painting which can easily be identify by the viewer. However, The Calling of Saint Matthew was a painting that was rejected by churches but at the same time it showed Caravaggio ability to illustrate biblical scenes that seems very realistically to somebody that’s looking at the painting.
His illustration of the biblical scene also significantly provides a strong look of how his painting influence by the Counter Reformation. For example, the lighting, the shadows, and the biblical themes all showed a significant meaning to the Reformation. Most of Caravaggio painting was mainly about religious art. His work has stood out from most painters because of his realism and naturalistic perspective that he used in his painting. Caravaggio also painted The Crucifixion of Saint Peter. It’s a painting with a very direct message and clear meaning.
For instance, the painting illustrates the biblical story of a disciple of Jesus named Peter wants to be crucified upside down because he didn’t feel worthy enough to die just like lesus. The Biblical story and the art work along showed how Caravaggio was influenced by the Counter Reformation. For example, the painting shown to be very straight forward and direct, and it can be understood by anybody without background and education levels. Caravaggio has also shown mannerist features in many of his works to.
For instance, he use light on each and every image to highlight the many features in the painting which create drama that can capture the viewer’s eyes. In this painting, light shown to be important because it provides the viewers, many explanations of what’s going on in the painting. For example, the light shining on St Peter while the three soldiers are among the shadows is visually important because the lighting represents the innocence of St Peter and the shadow represent the evil works of the soldiers.
In addition, It can easily infer that the lighting motivate the viewer to have a feeling of pity and sorrow for St Peter and an anger for the soldiers. Caravaggio use of chiaroscuro dominated many of his works. In The Crucifixion of Saint Peter painting, it also shows a great perspective of how the light becomes clearer in St Peter’s face than it moves toward the cross that he’s getting crucified in and also the light showed a visual understanding of how the soldiers were struggling to get Peter on the cross.
This perspective in the painting is very direct and it also helps the viewer to figure out what’s is really going on in the painting. His use of the color red also illustrated great significant to the emotions of the painting. For example, The red color represent Peter getting killed by crucifixion in the painting and the color red also highlight great feelings of extreme fear, the complete loss of hope, and the physical suffering which can be feel by the viewer. The Counter Reformation was greatest period for art which started by the Council of Trent.
The Council of Trent was a movement created by the Catholic Church with a great goal to oppose against the new Protestant religion. They were able to come with many ways to oppose against the protestant religion and art was one of them. Art had a great significance in the on because it was clear, compelling, and powerful and it also could be understood by anybody. This cause the church hired many painters, but Caravaggio was the best at all of them. Caravaggio was very skillful and creative painter.
His use of chiaroscuro and color in his painting creatively retell biblical story as art. He painted many great painting that define the Counter Reformation like the The crucifixion of saint Peter and many other works. Caravaggio painting were also inspiring to many generations of painters and his painting did also be used as a teaching tool for many young painters. Caravaggio had many successful works which cause him to represented as the Counter of reformation best painters