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Caravaggio and the Head of Goliath Veronica Polinedrio Kaleidoscope Volume 10 Article 30 August 2012 Caravaggio and the Head of Goliath Veronica Polinedrio Follow this and additional works at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/kaleidoscope Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits you. Recommended Citation Polinedrio, Veronica (2011) "Caravaggio and the Head of Goliath," Kaleidoscope: Vol. 10, Article 30. Available at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/kaleidoscope/vol10/iss1/30 This Showcase of Undergraduate Scholars is brought to you for free and open access by the The Office of Undergraduate Research at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Kaleidoscope by an authorized editor of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. OSWALD AWARDS SECOND PLACE - HUMANITIES: CRITICAL RESEARCH MichelangeloMerisi and the Head of Goliath: The reception of Caravaggio'sself-portrait PolinedrioVeronica Universityof Kentucky OSWALD AWARDS SECOND PLACE - HUMANITIES: CRITICAL RESEARCH Acknowledgments Page My deepestgratitude goes to David M. Stone and his contribution to the biography of Caravaggio.This thesis would not have been possiblewithout his studieson Caravaggio'sfinal yearsand his re-examinationof the painter'slife. I would also like to thank all of the biographersand scholarsthat have laid out an extensivefield of study for me to work on and develop my thesis on Caravaggio'sreception in the art world and society. I am indebted to my Art History Professorfane Petersfor her efforts and suggestionsin the constructionof my thesisand for allowingme to participatein the undergraduateresearch competition offered by the lthacaCollege of New York. Lastly, my great appreciationgoes to my peer reviewers famie Baquero, MeaghanBoenig, fessamine Michler and ElizabethSchaller for their contributionin improving my paper and enrichingmy backgroundon Europeanartists of the 17ttt century. OSWALD AWARDS SECOND PLACE - HUMANITIES: CRITICAL RESEARCH Italian societyof the 16e and 17e century had quite a standardizedview of academicartists. The ideal model of an artist was a sophisticated,well-mannered, and decorousindividual, trained in the studio of a masterunder the idealsof ancient Greekand Romanclassicism. Respected by the kingsand queens,popes and patrons of the time, he was a knowledgeablethinker, who introduced innovationswhile regardingthe conventionalcanons of painting and sculpture.Michelangelo Merisi, known as 'll Caravaggio'(L57L-I6L0), did not possessthese ideal qualities.Born in the small marchesatoof Caravaggio,located at the frontier of Lombardy and the Venetian territories in the northern part of the ltalian peninsula, the young Caravaggiowas for a period of four yearsan apprenticeof a Bergamasquepainter in the Milan-Caravaggioarea, Simone Peterzano (1540-1596), who proudly introduced himselfas a pupil of Titian (L488-1576). Largelyinterpreted by his contemporarybiographers as a rebelliousartist who exploited existing standardsof contemporaneousCatholic art, Caravaggiois today consideredan icon of the modernartist, one who has survivedthanks to, and for, his art. In light of the contributionof Stone'srecent research on the final yearsof the painter'slife, this study providesa new readingof the L610David with the Head of Goliath(see title page).Caravaggio is reinterpreted in this article under an alternative approach that explains his choicesof subjectmatter, explicateshis use of self-portraiture,and reveals his early negativereception as opposingto the modern and positive popularity in today'sworld of art. After leaving Caravaggio and Lombardy in L592 to never return, Caravaggiomoved to Rome.According to writers of the 17thcentury, such as Figure1 Davidand Goliath,1601-1602; oil on Fabio Masetti (dates are uncertain, c. canvas;Museo del Prado,Madrid. OSWALD AWARDS SECOND PLACE - HUMANITIES: CRITICAL RESEARCH \ ! t t605to Genoa'. & returnto Rome t t I I I r6ro to PortoErcole TYRRHENIANSEA i\t\ 16o9 to Naples \.. t6o7to Malta ,I t ,' r6oq ,' to Paleimo 4/€o/\ae4aqas€_ 4 16o8to Syracusq/ ,. ta lt' ,l - .t' o50 tt/t miles Map of the movementsof Caravaggiofrom 1588 to 1610 OSWALD AWARDS SECOND PLACE - HUMANITIES: CRITICAL RESEARCH 770A), Karel van Mander [1548-1606) and Giulio Mancini (1558-1630), Caravaggio's"strevagantissimo" temperament caused him to be known as a violent and "disturbed brain", despite his excellent works and talents for naturalism.l During his Romanlife, in fact,he never receivedthe type of commissionthat a 16tr century more conventionalartist would obtain, but he became,during his life, a prot6gd of Cardinal and Archbishop of Milan, Federico Borromeo (1564-L63L), cousinof SaintCharles Borromeo (1538-1584).2 the connectionto the ecclesiastic figure of Borromeo may have allowed Caravaggioto obtain some lesser commissions,such as the in situ scenesof SaintMatthew for the ContarelliChapel in the year 1600,as well as protectionin his final years,after the murder of his friend RanuccioTomassoni.3 The event, which occurred on May 28 L606, marked the beginningof the end of Caravaggio'spublic life and art commissions.Rejected by the 17thcentury religiouslyCatholic Roman society, he fled first to Malta,and then to Naples,where in his isolationhe paintedthe Davidwith the Headof Goliathin 1610. The biblical narrativeof Davidkilline the evil Goliathwas a visual familiar to Caravaggio.Before the 1610 depiction,he already had produced rwo canvasesof the samesubject (see figs. 1 and 2). The David with the Head of Galiathof 1610,conserved in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, however,poses some questions, as it seemsthat the artist used his own faceas modelfor the evil Figure2 Davidwith the Headof Goliath,1605; oil on poplar wood; KunsthistorischesMuseum, Vienna, Austria. Goliath.The establishedview on 1Grove Dictionary of Art, "Caravaggio,"(Oxford Art OnlineJ. 2Grove Dictionary of Art, "Caravaggio,"(Oxford Art Online). s FerdinandoBologna, "Caravaggio, the Final Years[1606-1610)," in Caravaggio,the Final Yeers,ed. Maria Sapio Silvia Cassani (Naples: Electa Napoli, 2005)., 18. OSWALD AWARDS SECOND PLACE - HUMANITIES: CRITICAL RESEARCH the painter'slast canvasfinds explanationin the belief that Caravaggiopainted it to ask for forgivenessin a desperateand ultimate act of mercy to the pope.4Despite the observationsof Caravaggio'scontemporaries regarding the tenebrousbehavior and the violent psychologyof the Lombardpainter, I arguethat Caravaggiodid, in fact and intentionally,portray himself as the Goliathin the 1610 canvasof David with the head of Goliath.However, he did not do so to receive grace from the pope for the crimes he had committed in Rome in order to return to the eternal city, which is the acceptedinterpretation, but rather to persist in his revolutionary, arrogant, and rebellious behavior that made him a coherent trendsetter of naturalismand an innovativeartist of the L76 century.My thesisrelies heavily on Stone'sarticle, "Self and myth in Caravaggio'sDavid with the headof Goliath",which sustainsthat Caravaggiowas well aware of what he was doing in the 1510 version and built himself a reputation through others' rumors. The painting in question seemsto follow Leonardoda Vinci's 15tr century concettaof 'ogni pintoredipinge sd stesso'fevery painter depictshimselfJ,s an aphorismthat was widely acknowledged in 17s centuryltalian societyand would havearoused curiosity to the viewers.6 In the Borgheserepresentation of David with the Head of Goliath (1610), dated to the last year of the artist's life and romanticallyseen as the artist's last work of art, Caravaggiooffers the viewers the aftermathof the battle betweenthe young king and the evil giant. The entire depiction heavily revolves around contrastingelements and opposites,which combine and emphasizemany of the ideals of tenebrism, defined as the "abrupt juxtaposition of light and shadow without intermediategradations of tone".7 Visually,David opposesGoliath by his youth, his livelinessand vigor, his posture and larger use of spacein the composition.Contrastingly, Goliath is old, +Schama Simon, "The Power of Art: Caravaggio,"in ThePower of Art [BBC,2006). s DavidM. Stone,"Self and Myth in Caravaggio'sDavid and Goliath,"in Caravaggio:Realism, Rebellion,Reception, ed. GenevieveWarwick (Newark: University of DelawarePress, 2006)., 36. o Frank Zallner, "Ogni Pittore Dipinge Sd".Leonardo Da Vinci And "Automimesis",Der KtiNstlerUBer Sich in SeinemWerk.Internationales Symposi-Um Der BibliothecaHertziana (Rome1992).,2. 7Grove Dictionary of Art, "Tenebrism,"(Oxford Art Online). OSWALD AWARDS SECOND PLACE - HUMANITIES: CRITICAL RESEARCH bearded,dirty and aestheticallytasteless, morbid and decaying.David is posed vertically and centrally in the composition,while Goliath is on the lower right corner, occupyinga small sectionof the canvas.Symbolically, sacred and profane are significantingredients of the canvas:the biblical subjectmatter is infused by Caravaggio'srelentless convention of using low class models for the saints,the martyrs and the Madonna.sCaravaggio's naturalism made him known by his contemporarypeers as the painter who used prostitutes for the Virgin Mary and servantsfor the saints.IvVhat Caravaggio revealed in his modelswas the reality of societyand the carefulobservation of human conditionsand body language.Rome in the 17e century was far from the ideal image of an eternal city. Urban growth attracted new patrons and wealthy commissioners,but also soldiers,prostitutes, beggars,orphans,
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