Caravaggio, Sanctuary of the Madonna of

In the activity of C., three periods may be established (very approximately, and without any claim to strict precision): the youthful period, extending from his earliest works to about 1595, in which the colouring is generally intense and vivid, the linear taste undulating and sinuous, and the modelling still soft; the period of maturity, lasting until his flight from Rome in 1607, in which he powerfully developed the problems of light and movement, at first in an intricate interplay of often pleasing elements, then progressively simplifying his style towards an essential plastic rendering; a simplification which sometimes appears even summary in his final brief period, in which colour becomes clouded and blackish, and execution is often hurried; yet in which there nevertheless rise lofty intuitions of a pictorial genius among the greatest of mankind. C. himself stated his programme, as Bellori relates, scorning the study of ancient statuary models and maintaining that nature had provided him with a sufficient number of living models. Mancini further specifies, in 1620, that it is characteristic of C.’s school to illuminate with a uniform light descending from above without reflections, as in a room whose walls are painted black, so as to give relief to the painting, adding that this school, working in this manner, is very observant of truth. Thus in C. there is an explicit revolutionary intention, repudiating the supposedly inviolable dogmas of the classicizing, or humanistic, tradition of the sixteenth century. For this reason C.’s influence was immense, and without him a great part of the painting of the following centuries is scarcely conceivable. - Vedi Tav. XLVII.