Caravaggio’s Chiaroscuro, and Lazio, the Roman Wine Region.

This is a young Caravaggio painting. The model may not be Caravaggio as once suspected but supposedly a certain Mario Minniti. Either way, one can see the artist’s ability to do the face with emotion and the still life elements with detail, which shows he gained a lot working in the studios of other artists in Rome. However, he never had a studio himself. Obviously, in whatever rooms he lived in, he would set up a model, sometimes himself, gather a few objects, and paint. While Caravaggio became famous for his Baroque style religious paintings which hang in a number of churches in Italy, these early paintings of pretty boys in hard circumstances show a lot about the life he led and the development of the painting technique he is most famous for, Chiaroscuro.

Chiaroscuro literally means light and dark. It actually seems to have been developed first by Leonardo da Vinci and can be seen in his drawings of drapery with ink washes done on colored paper. However, the sharp contrasts used by Caravaggio, and the way he uses light and dark to tell stories in his paintings has forever attached the term chiaroscuro to his name. In the painting above, we see the young man in a less that white garment, a coquettish flower in his tousled unkempt hair, getting a surprise bite from a lizard hidden in the assembled greenery of the still life. The sharp contrast of the light on his shoulder and part of his face, seem to go along with the pretense of elegance the flower in his hair suggests. Yet it also shows his dirt-rimmed fingernails. The lizard is rather obscured by the darkness of the leaves and the heavy shadow on the table. Its bite is a little reminder of the ever presence of mortality that lurked in the Roman environment, where life was short and not always sweet.

Duality is everywhere here and indicated by the sharp contrast in dark and light. Even the lovely vase that reflects some light seems to have slightly grayish water and a fading flower with leaves turned black. The young man is shocked by the bite, which Caravaggio paints with all the emotion that Baroque art loves. The viewer of the painting is shocked, too, by the griminess and the wretched sadness of the circumstances in contrast to the beauty of the painting and the expression. It is in some respects a bi-polar representation of perhaps a bi-polar life.

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Michelangelo Merisi had a hard scrabble life, exacerbated by his rough and ready personality and the harsh times he lived in. He was born in Milan in 1571, but raised in the town of Caravaggio (hence the name he is known by) because of an outbreak of plague in Milan. At the age of six, he lost his father. He spent his teens working in artists’ workshops in Milan, where there is no record of any notable achievement. At 20 he went off to Rome to seek his fortune. During the eight years it took before he found a wealthy patron, he sold his work as he could (see the Boy Bitten by a Lizard, above). He apprenticed in the studios of two different artists, but with no works pointing notably to him. In one studio he painted faces, and in the other he painted fruits, flowers, and other still life elements. He lived as he could, often used friends or people from the streets as models, and in a pinch, he posed himself (Young Sick Bacchus, 1593). He had a few good years when he had the protection of patrons, but he killed a man and had to flee Rome under penalty of death in 1606. From there it was off to Naples and then to Malta, painting magnificent paintings, becoming a Knight of Malta and then their most wanted criminal, as he went. Finally in 1610 he died, either of fever, or being murdered, or having lead poisoning from his paints.

So what accounts for paintings like the one below? It is hard to find a sweeter, more lovely representation of a Bible story. The mother and child are asleep with the mother’s chin resting gently on the child’s head. Joseph, ever the guardian, sits by the light of a campfire that must be just out of our view. Before him stands an exquisite angel, playing sweet music to bring them a moment of respite.

Here as usual with Caravaggio, the way the light falls helps to tell the story. The faces of Mary and the baby are in bright light. There are no halos as there would have been in medieval times, but the light upon those figures is quite bright. Joseph is once again a type of secondary character, as he often is in nativity scenes where he is off to the side, holding perhaps a candle or a lamp. His face is in shadow here, and once again he serves by holding the sheet music for the angel. Finally we have the angel who is the brightest figure present. His robe is quite white as it swirls about him, indicating his perfect body in quite a sensuous way. Of his face we only see the profile with his eyes downcast in the direction of the sheet music that Joseph holds at an angle. The nighttime gloom that surrounds these fugitives is brighten by this presence, and that little campfire just out of our sight, which flushes the face of the angel.

The painting below depicts St. Anne, the mother of Mary, the Madonna, herself, and Jesus. It is often called the Madonna of the Serpent and was one of Caravaggio’s last paintings done in Rome. It was commissioned by the Confraternity of Sant’ Anna dei Palafrenerie, or the Grooms of the Vatican Palace. It was done in 1605-1606 just as Caravaggio’s life was about to spin out of control. That may explain the overly heavy, almost solid black background. The painting was rejected after hanging for just two days. The Virgin Mary was deemed to be too voluptuous.

The interesting thing here is how he uses a light that comes from somewhere outside of the picture to strongly highlight the Madonna, the child, and the pale undersides of the snake. St. Anne herself is a bit in the shadow, a secondary player, though she must be there since it is a confraternity dedicated to her that commissioned the painting. Her white scarf catches the light which also highlights her dark clothing, but her face which is looking down at the scene, very calmly I must admit, is in shadow. Mary, without alarm, places her foot on the serpent’s head, but her force is added to by the foot of her son. That force makes the snake’s body writhe and twist, which is dramatically emphasized by the use of light color that traces the movement of its body. In the symbolism of the time, this Baroque painting was about stamping out heresy, which is what the Catholic Church thought of Protestantism. What we see once again is Caravaggio’s take on religion where angels and Jesus are pure beautiful boys, and women, including the Madonna, show themselves as rather full-bodied. It was his way of telling those stories with a kind of earthy reality that the viewers of the time could relate to, even if some of his patrons did not.

For a bit more information on the life and work of Caravaggio, British art historian, Andrew Graham Dixon has done a reprise of an earlier investigation he did on Caravaggio, titled, Who Killed Caravaggio? He takes a C.S.I. approach to ferreting out the details of the painter’s life which expose some startling discoveries (spoiler: Caravaggio may have killed a man over a woman!) Find it here on youtube.com. Should you want to see the effects of chiaroscuro lighting, there is a little video that shows it with simple, clear examples: youtube.com

The paintings of Caravaggio are in Public Domain.

Marjorie Vernelle is an artist, writer, college professor, and traveler. For more see the Pages at ofartandwine.comor her author page at amazon.com and her art at Vernelle Art Boutique vernellestudio.com.

The Wines of Roma

While the Ancient Egyptians created lovely paintings of bowers of growing grape vines, and the Greeks spread the cultivation of wine to the island of Sicily, nothing spread the creation and consumption of wine like the Roman Empire. Roma, the great and powerful, spread wine far and wide, even growing wine grapes in Britain, though the recurring mini ice-ages always brought the process to a halt. Their wine amphorae are often found on ancient ship wrecks in the Mediterranean, proving that Roman wine was a much sought after commodity.

Of course the Romans came by their wine indulgence from their northern forebearers, the Etruscans, who were cultivating grapes and making wine in the 6th century B.C. Since the Etruscans were also great believers in commerce, they sold their wines all over, including to the inhabitants of southern France, which started a fledgling wine industry there. Naturally as with so many other things, the Romans learned about wine and took to it very well. However, don’t think they spent their days in an inebriated haze. Oh no, too much to conquer and administer for that. Romans drank their wine diluted with water (2 parts water to one part wine), and a good thing too, since those ancient wines had ABV of 15 -20%! Drinking the undiluted wine was considered to be rather low class. Class was also indicated by the type of wine consumed, with the wealthy and upper class drinking white wines, while the lower classes drank red.

Italy, as we know is full of wine-growing regions, and the citizens of the capital city, Rome itself, had fertile valleys of volcanic soil on their doorstep in a region known as Latium, now called Lazio. One would think that being so close to the center of power that Lazio would be one of Italy’s key wine-growing regions, but alas like the luster of the Roman Empire, it has come down in the world. It became known for rather uninteresting sweet white wines. However, things are beginning to look up. This summer the wonderful confluence of Italian culture, books, wine, and food that is Eataly is celebrating Roma by making their stores into an homage to the ancient capital of the western world. Naturally they focus on wines from the Roma region, Lazio, telling visitors to “Drink like the Romans do.” They focus on “an aromatic” white wine called Est! Est! Est! and a “silky” red called Mata Matuta. eataly.com

While Lazio suffered from over production of cheap wines, which ruined its reputation, vintners are now looking at combining new technology, the rich contents of that volcanic soil, and a wide variety of grapes to produce wines of note. Frascati, made from two white grapes, Trebbiano and Malvasia, has become quite popular. Jacopo Mazzeo, writes that Frascati has “refreshing acidity and beautiful scents of candy fruits, Mediterranean herbs, blossom and apricot.” He also tells the story of how that other emerging wine from the Montefiascone DOC, Est! Est! Est!, supposedly got its name. See the article at greatitalianchefs.com

It seems that while other areas were claiming all the glory, many vintners in Lazio took the time to experiment with different types of grapes to see which ones were well suited to their volcanic soil. They began growing a number of grapes more common to France, such as Chardonnay, Viognier, and Sauvignon Blanc. With an eye to history, there is a wine from the combination of Viognier and Chardonnay named Antinoo, after a statue of Emperor Hadrian’s favorite youthful companion, Antinous. Unlike the Emperor’s favorite, this wine seems to age well, making it particularly exceptional. For a more complete guide to the wines of Lazio, with tasting notes, see “Really Good Wines from Lazio” at wineloverspage.com

What’s wine without food? Well, it’s good, but certainly everything is better with a bite to eat. Frascati is great with white fish, light pasta and salads. The chicken saltimbocca works well with the Antinoo or the Frascati. For a meat dish like oven-roasted lamb cutlet, a Roman favorite, try a Petit Verdot red. Casale del Giglio makes a very good one. So when in Rome or at your favorite Eataly, experience the wines of Roma, from Lazio, and look around for a book on Caravaggio.

Since travel is a bit restricted at the moment, you can always travel the world of wine through a wine club. Cellars Wine Club offers a variety of choices including an International Wine Club (cellarswineclub.com). Take a look at all of the clubs by clicking on Cellars Wine Club under Of Art and Wine Pages. They all offer free shipping, a “no bad bottle” return policy, and Cellars will donate 15% of the sale to one of the vetted charities that you choose. While you enjoy the wine, you can feel good and do good – a perfect pairing.

Of Art and Wine affiliates with Bluehost.com and  CellarsWineClub.com and may earn from qualifying purchases.

©marjorie vernelle 2020

Coming Soon: Scandal! Sargent and Madame X. Was it the Sparkling Rosé?

Well, nothing like a good scandal. That is exactly what happened when these two American-born members of French society became perhaps a bit too French for the French. They say it was all about the strap of the gown being shown having slipped off her shoulder, but was it?