Burst of Light: Caravaggio and His Legacy

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Saint John the Baptist, 1604-05
(The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) 302#

 "Burst of Light: Caravaggio and His Legacy" an exhibition demonstrating the lasting legacy of the infamous artist on 17th century art has traveled across the country from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to the Wadsworth Antheneum in Connecticut, a much smaller collection but noteworthy nonetheless. As with any show of this magnitude foreign loans are a major issue which are missing except for two loans from the National Gallery in London and the National Gallery of Canada in the Wadsworth exhibit. The show includes five paintings by Caravaggio which are hung in the first of three galleries. Also in the first gallery are those artists who were Caravaggio's contemporaries or those artists that worked alongside him. The 'Caravaggisti' as his followers are known are divided into two galleries according to their geographic location. There is an audio guide for the exhibition which is accessed through a phone line. For you to enjoy the exhibition as any other visitor can do at the Wadsworth I am including the telephone number 1-860-760-9980 and the numbers on the works of art. Just dial this number from any phone and punch in the numbers on the paintings followed by the pound key. The main number for the overview of the exhibition is 300#.

As soon as visitors enter the main gallery of the exhibition they are confronted with a half-clad, young Saint John the Baptist, commanding attention in the middle of the facing wall. This painting is everything one expects from the infamous Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - he is a full-length figure pushed to the front of the picture plane with a dark background that helps to project the figure into the viewer's space and a strong light coming from the top left. It is even possible to see the incisions above the right knee. This painting is flanked on both sides with two smaller, more intimate works - Martha and Mary Magdalene to the left and  Saint Francis of Assisi Ecstasy to the right.

Claude Monet - Grainstack Series

Claude Monet, Haystacks at Chailliy at Sunrise, 1865
(San Diego Museum of Art)

Monet revisited the subject of his earlier painting, Haystacks at Chailliy from 1865 when he began working on his Grainstack series.

Claude Monet, Grainstack, Sun in the Midst, 1891
(Minneapolis Institute of Arts)

He was living back at Giverny in 1890 and was going out everyday to paint in the fields that surrounded his house.  This was a very familiar landscape, right outside his door.  The Grainstacks were 20 x 18' high man-made structures that were used to store wheat. It sometimes took a whole year to break them down, which was a great convenience for Monet.  He painted 25 canvases of the same motif with very little variations - some are one and some are two grainstacks - except for the light, weather and atmospheric effects.  He would set up a couple of easels next to one another and work on several canvases at the same time.

Claude Monet, Grainstack Snow Effect, 1891
(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Claude Monet, Grainstacks at Sunset, Snow Effect, 1890
(Art Institute of Chicago)

Claude Monet, Grainstacks in the Sunlight Midday

Claude Monet, Two Grainstacks at The End of The Day, Autumn
(Art Institute of Chicago)

Grainstacks were monumental subjects on the landscape symbolizing fertility and prosperity; they were directly associated with the French countryside.  Monet was rendering the light and air surrounding the object, its distinctive light and atmosphere, this, he referred to as 'enveloppe.'  The subject became secondary to the colors and effects.  He was trying to capture air and light with paint.  It is relatively easy to decipher what he is trying to accomplish in the Grainstacks at Sunset, Snow Effect - the same blue used in the surroundings is picked up in the Grainstack, breaking down the barrier between the figure and ground. Monet captured the haziness that surrounded the figure. In these paintings, Monet's love of the French countryside, deep admiration for nature and his distinctive individualism all come through in eloquent simplicity. 1


1  Paul Tucker, Monet and the Challenges to Impressionism in the 1880s

Hokusai, 36 Views of Mount Fuji, 1826-1833                              

ukiyo-e Japanese Woodcut Prints Monet was aware of these prints and he owned a couple of them.  He was probably influenced by the idea of taking one subject and going over and over it with variations.