Originally
posted: Thursday, October 4, 2012
Hi Boodelina.
Fall is here. The
weather is divine – my favorite time of year. Actually I like all of the year
except humid weather, which in New York is most of the summer and which in turn
makes it one of the most despicable places on earth for July and August. So, I
spent most of July in Canada at my brother’s place in Ottawa. He has a large
swimming pool and an extra car for me to buzz around in. He also has a very
nice mountain bike that I ride every day. Ottawa has hundreds of miles of bike
paths meandering all over the city – my favorite being along the Rideau Canal
which runs for miles along the Ottawa River through an exquisite, bucolic and
perfectly maintained park in the English style. The air is sweet and every day
was sunny and cool. So nice.
While there I saw
that the National Gallery of Canada had an exhibition called “Caravaggio and
his School” so I raced over to see the show. 
Michelangelo Merisi da
Caravaggio
1571 – 1610 (only 39 yrs old!!)
Others included in
the exhibition – Gentileschi, Manfredi, Gerard Van Honthorst aka Gherardo delle Notti because of his nighttime
candlelit subjects, were well represented but the star was Caravaggio. I learned that Caravaggio was the first to
paint from a live model without first doing a series of sketches or drawings “thus giving his canvases a sense of
immediacy by making the viewer an active participant” as they pointed out
in the museum guide. Caravaggio’s “revolutionary technique of tenebrism, or dramatic, selective
illumination of form out of deep shadow, became a hallmark of Baroque painting.” I also wanted to see the show because I loved the film Caravaggio by Derek Jarman. Tilda Swinton plays one of Caravaggio's studio boys.
Amor
Victorious Michaelangelo Merisi da
Caravaggio 1602
Caravaggio
Boy With a Basket of Fruit 1594
Caravaggio St. Anne. What a great face.
Caravaggio.
St. Matthew and the angel. 1602 An
excellent example of the technique of tenebrism.
The show was
gruesome. All shadow and light – chiaroscuro. Gerard Van Honthorst’s St.
Sebastian in the repose of death had a perfectly ghoulish yellow/green tinge to
the skin but, to me, was unconvincing because the arrow wounds were too neat.
Gerard
Van Honthorst St. Sebastian. Ecstatic death, green skin and neat wounds…
And Ghentileschi’s
“Judith Beheading Holofernes” is better than any modern day horror film as her
maidservant holds Holofernes, the arrogant invading general of Nebuchadnezzar, down while Judith slices through his neck with a
bejeweled scabbard. Notice in the painting the determination on Judith’s face,
her strong stance and muscular arms and the way her right breast is pushed
against her left – physicality only a woman artist would naturally understand
and depict. He got his comeuppance!
Artemiscia Ghentileschi was one of the most
accomplished painters of her time, after Caravaggio, when few women artists
were acknowledged, let alone accepted she forged ahead, depicting strong women
in commanding roles. She was the first female artist accepted into the Accademia di Arte del Disegno
in Florence. My friends Robyn Hutt and Sandra
Elgear tried for years to get a feature film based on her life produced but it
seems, more than 350 years later, women are still fighting the status quo and
must forge ahead against all odds!
Artemisia
Gentileschi 1593–1656 Judith Beheading Holofernes
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