The Head of Medusa, by Carvaggio--
if you don't know much about caravggio, he was the jim morrison of his day. a great painter beyond belief, but also a drinker, gambler, etc. was banished from several cities, had people wanting to kill him over debts and other stuff, and died at 38 in a drunken knife fight in the streets of florence.
This work is often thought to be a self-portrait, painted looking in a mirror.
7 comments:
Nice one.
Also cool about Carravagio is that his models in many of his paintings depicting holy figures (the saints,Jesus Christ,and the virgin Mary) were prostitutes, criminals, his male lovers and other marginalized folk.
SUBVERSIVE and Fantastic.
I wonder if there are some wonderous and kind things that carravagio did that you could celebrate instead of pointing out his short comings.
Imagine that years from now some your writer does a similar series involving you pointing out sure that blizzo was a great writer, but look at all the shit that makes him worthless.
Think of the principles of art reinforcement, what you've started here is punishment theory.
by subversive, do you think he used these models to undermine the church?
I'd suggest that his choices may have been more pragmatic.
modeling is often no fun, sitting for hours in the same position is tough, I wonder if these people were chosen because he couldn't afford others to do it, and/or his male lovers would sit for free. hmmmm.6 of one, half dozen of the other I suppose.
somtimes I think that history is written as people would like it be rather than how it is.
Invented history is always more appealing then the wearisome tyranny of fact. (Noteboom)
Great quote.
I did mean subversive to the church/government/papacy.
With respect to Carravagio, from what I know, more than his choice in models, his use of chiaro scuro, the realism (dirty fingernails etc.) and the unconventional ways he portrayed the sacred stories were what really bugged people, to say the least. Subverting a Roman Church, that rather than ban art like the protestants did, just decided to manage it and control it.
It seems plausible that his choice in models was pragmatic rather than political. As I understand it though the scandal of his choice in models happened during his lifetime, namely using the body of a dead prostitute as the model for a dead virgin Mary or something like that. But I guess,without Carravagio to ask, we have to rely on the various puzzle pieces of evidence to create a picture to understand him.
And i think that is what history really is, a puzzle, and we get bits and pieces here and there, from different places. Not to say that every piece fits in, but even the "invented" history has a place, as it says volumes about the people who invent it.
Cara takes her seat, hot blushing from head to toe....
Anyway,
I think this whole discussion of history kinda connects to your series on the Hero.
Which I see as a challenge to an accepted version of history and mythmaking.What better hommage to our heros, than accepting their whole picture and as a result challenging our own notions heroic.
Hey, is that quote from "Handwriting"?
Well, wherever it came from I'm inspired to read more Ondaatje.
Sounds good
:)
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