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.

A Procession of Virgin Martyrs -Francisco de Zurbaràn

Francisco de Zurbaràn, Saint Rufina, 1635

Francisco de Zurbaràn, Saint Rufina, 1635

There are two full length, life size female portraits in the Hispanic Society's collection in New York hanging amongst their Spanish Golden Age masterworks section. The two portraits appear almost as pendants painted using the same color palette, with both figures composed in a similar pose looking up towards the same point outside the picture frame.   These two figures are actually, Saint Lucy, ca. 1630  and Saint Rufina, ca. 1635, by Francisco de Zurbaràn.  

Renowned for his monastic commissions, (I wrote in depth about this in an earlier post) the most popular works from Zurbaràn's oeuvre were his series of female saints.  Also known as the virgin martyrs, each one comes with a very interesting legend attached to their name. Saint Lucy’s name Lucia, means light in Latin and it is supposed to herald the Light of the World, which is why she is appealed to against disorders of the eye and carries her eyes as her attributes.  There are also embellished versions of her story where she rips out her eyes to send them to her suitor.  Saint Rufina, who was martyred in Seville in the 3^rd century, was a potter who refused to sell her wares to be used for a pagan celebration and as a result was executed for being a Christian.