Some art can be beheld removed from its time more easily because it is immortal.
Cheesy but true. Caravaggio (Italian, 1571-1610) and Rembrandt (Dutch 1606-1669)
are of the most attractive classics. Their modern appeal is to address emotion,
making them timeless. My favorite artist of all times for this reason is Girodet
but we wonÕt get into that now. Regardless, this art speaks to our hearts and our
emotions, not to our minds.

The treatment of light in art can be enlightening and spectacular. It characterizes
absolution. The key thing shared by Caravaggio and Rembrandt was chiaroscuro.
Chiaroscuro is the treatment of light and shade in painting. The origin of the word
is: Chiaro from the Latin clarus meaning clear or bright, and oscuro from the Latin
obscurus meaning dark or obscure. Let me just throw in a plug here for one of my
favorite words ever obfuscate, look it up. Anyway, check out how the shoulder on
the left in this painting seems to be defined by the divine light that falls upon it.
On the right is the other shoulder which is inverted, defined by its silhouette.
This is chiaroscuro. Key-are-oh-skoo-ro.



The above painting (Man in Oriental Costume, 1632) by Rembrandt, with its bold composition
is typical of the artist after he moved to Amsterdam, the center of optical science
during the winter of 1632-33. Amsterdam was becaoming the center of art too. In the
17th century over 7 million paintings would be produced there. Both Caravaggio and
Rembrandt gave us a natural source of light in their paintings. Check out The Musicians
(Caravaggio, about 1592) which also exemplifies the creation of form through light and shadow.



The wings on Aeros (Cupid, left) were discovered when the Metropolitan museum bought and
cleaned the piece. This scene depicts young musicians probably pulled off the street
with rough appearance in secular erotic preformance. There is a lute (stringed on left),
a correnetto (horn) and a violin which sits in the foreground inviting you to play along.

If music be the food of love, play on
-Shakespeare

We canÕt help but being part of the scene, the taste of the grapes and the sound of the music.
Sensuality is built through satisfaction of each of the senses. The open mouth of the center
character indicates a pause, theyÕre not playing.

Some Caravaggio facts: Peter Lastman was the teacher of Caravaggio. Shakespear is a
contemporary of Caravaggio, both embracing the atmosphere of antiquity. Although The
Musicians is quite pleasing, Caravaggio competed with Carache in vulgar realism. He
often used people off the streets and was reported to have even used the dead bloated
body of a prostitute to model the dead virgin.

... anyway, onto The Holey Family (Caravaggio, 1602-04) with the Infant Saint John the Baptist.
This piece was previously only known through copies and old photographs. It is the only private
devotional picture of the Madonna and Child by Caravaggio. Many people donÕt know that the halo
around Mary was added long after 1602. ItÕs interesting that this family is painted as though it
could be any family.



Mary is Mediterranean which is realistic. The child has trepidation. Joseph has
a solemn face that will fool the devil but not the believer. The boy on the lower left
is John the Baptist who is three years ChristÕs elder and hence pre-Christian. You can
see that the chipped parapet that Mary sits on somehow separates John and makes him lesser.
The figures are all related psychologically through gaze and physically through the shape of a pyramid.



The Denial of Peter shown above had a lot to do with the politics of religion at the time.
The catholic church was looking a lot of people to the protestants and were looking to win
them back. Their motto was: you have sinned but we will take you back, you have gone astray
but we forgive you. This is said (symbolically) by the soldier (left) to Peter (right). Light
also plays a great role. Although Peter is shown in unflattering (wrinkleÐshowing) light
physically it is his spirit that is enlightened. The soldier is dark and Mary is sort of half
way (what did you expect, sheÕs a woman É good thing Dan Brown reminds us that she was the chalice right?).

In the scene, she brings in the soldier saying that she saw Peter with Christ. The three large
fingers pointing at Peter (2 of them are his own) signify the three denials of Christ by Paul.
There is a fire in a fire place between Mary and Paul, can you see it? One key thing that differentiates
good artists is weather they can accurately portray metal work. You can see that the soldier
is heavily decorated with exquisite armor. The way the light reflects off the surface is well done.

Rembrandt facts: Rembrandt was not known for making people look young. In fact he would pick the
features that made people look old and amplify them to convey wisdom. All but one of the children of
Rembrandt died in infancy and the one who lived died a year before Rembrandt. Rembrandt spent all of
his rich wifeÕs money and was broke when it ran out and had to auction his possessions.

I want to show you Aristotle with a Bust of Homer (Rembrandt, 1653), commissioned for Don Rufo (Antonio Ruffo),
a wealthy Sicilian collector. The Greek philosopher rests his hand reflectively on the statue of Homer,
an epic poet of an earlier age.



A medallion of Alexander the Great, whom Aristotle tutored, hangs from the gold chain. The gold chain
represents fame power and wealth while Homer represents intellectual power. Black is the traditional
scholarÕs garb. Black dye was expensive and usually only Spanish clerks and mourners wore it, black was
not trendy back then. Homer has empty sockets where eyes should be because he was blind. He had the
power of description though. Aristotle is empathetic with his hand placement, the gesture symbolizes
the transfer between contemporary and classical knowledge.

Aristotle was the tutor of Alexander the Great and annotated the Iliad, which Alexander carried around
in a gold casket. Artists were also commissioned by rich people. Michaelangelo was even commissioned
to make frosty the snowman once.