St. John the Baptist Preaching by Mattia Preti

Caravaggio’s, however, was darker and more dramatic. Caravaggio started an intense style called tenebrism. Tenebrism is a more prominent form of chiaroscuro, where there are vehement contrasts between light and dark. Fred Kleiner best describes Caravaggio’s style, “In his art, Caravaggio injected naturalism into both religion and the classics, reducing them to human dramas played out in the harsh and dingy settings of his time and place” (Kleiner, 681). Caravaggio painted during the Italian Baroque in the 1600’s. Italian Baroque artists like Caravaggio embraced theatricality and extravagant ornamentation, while Renaissance artists focused more on precise classical models. Now Caravaggio wasn’t exactly an upstanding member of society, most of what the art world knows about him is through his police reports. Caravaggio’s Entombment was created in 1603 and, like Giotto’s Lamentation, depicts the death of Jesus. While they both depict the same religious scene and use styles that are new for their time, Caravaggio’s painting has some drastic differences from Giotto’s. Caravaggio’s painting is oil painted on canvas, which gives Caravaggio the opportunity to be more detailed in his painting than Giotto can with fresco. Caravaggio creates these intense dramatic scenes of diagonals and intense movement. Unlike Giotto, Caravaggio uses linear perspective to direct his viewer’s attention to the body of Jesus. Caravaggio does this by using a diagonal cascade of mourners descending towards Jesus’ body. Inclusively, Caravaggio started a darker, more dramatic movement that gave naturalism a new realistic element.

The symmetrical appearance of the work was also common in Southern pieces that rooted back to the Greek’s advances in mathematics, while the realistic human anatomy roots to the newly acquired humanistic values in art. There is a clear focal point of Mary, with the addition of a subtle triangular composition created by the Mary, Jesus, and St. John. This composition creates order, which is more appealing than a painting with chaos and no clear focus. The trees and pathways in the background also seem to be proportional to the sizes of the three characters, diminishing in size as the picture recedes. This creates a visually appealing tone to the work of art, as for the brain does not have to atone for the abstract and surreal. The bodies are realistically portrayed, which again, adds to the curiosity of Southern artists had of true human anatomy. Mary has a figure, a popping bosom and stomach are not typically seen in a depiction of her. Jesus and St. John both have noticeable baby fat around their arms, legs, and stomach, which is unappealing for a piece of art, but is still

The medium of the painting was Tempera on wood and this was common practice use of painting during the early part of the Renaissance. The painting itself tells a story. It shows three miracles that saint Zenobius performed. In the first scene, we are shown Zenobius beside what is believed to be a funeral procession for a young boy. In the painting itself, it is

Beginning with the hands, you can see how most apostles to the left of Christ are pointing to his direction, this gives the viewer hints of how the handing off of the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven is the focus of this painting. Moreover, it can also be seen how Saint Andrew who is behind Jesus Christ on the left, has his hands crossed like an X. The way Saint Andrew has his arms crossed and how head tilts slightly to the left with his eyes closed shows how the cause of his death was through crucifixion on an X shaped cross. Additionally, the fifth person to Christ’s left, the man with a purple gown and darker skin holding his hand inside his purse is believed to be Saint Judas since he betrayed Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. It can be seen how the facial expression belonging to Judas possesses an air of unpleasantry compared to the ones of the other apostles. All of the apostles including Jesus Christ have halos on their heads, this is used to demonstrate who has been canonized as a saint. Furthermore, Perugino portrayed the men at the ends of the fresco with their backs turned towards the ends of the painting in order to force the viewer into scanning all of the apostles and while being able to easily look back to Christ and Peter without losing

Caillebotte was noted for his early interest in photography as an art form, and often liked to incorporate traits from photography into his work. His fascination with photography is evident in this painting, looking closely towards the centre of the composition it seems to bulge: an effect created by a camera lens which Caillebotte reproduced within the painting.

In drawing, comes a point and where two point connects forms a line. With a line turns into a shape and therefore you can add depth and value to make it more dimensional and appealing to a human’s eye. The shape and space in this painting is very constrained in a way. The twelve apostles surrounding the Virgin gives the audience a sign of how the virgin is very important. The shape of their bodies may seem

4. The Persuasive Art by Caravaggio and its Influence on other Painters After the Counter Reformation, Caravaggio's emerging ability to depict new religious paintings highly depicting the human feelings and dramatic emotion in his Chiaroscuro style provided to be an important inspiration for many artists throughout the ages which included masters such as Georges de La Tour in France and Gerard van Honthorst in the Netherlands. 4.1 Caravaggio (1571 - 1610) Italy The Calling of Saint Matthew (1599–1600) Caravaggio’s technique was one that highlighted realism through which he remained faithful to truthful details and never beyond that normally seen. He created a type of realism that griped the spectator’s attention to the symbolic

It is a painting depicting Saul of Tarsus, almost at the end of his journey to Damascus, when a great light suddenly surrounds him from heaven, a light brighter than the sun. He then heard the voice of Christ asking Saul why he persecutes him. After this experience, he is converted and journeys into the city as a messenger of Christ. The painting has a high contrast value. It conveys a great deal of emotion. Caravaggio uses harsh, raking light that strikes across the painting, illuminating parts of it while plunging the rest into deep shadow. This dramatic illumination heightens the emotional tension, focuses the details, and isolates the figures in the foreground. The size of the horse in proportion to Saul seems awesome in stature. There is an emphasis on Saul with his arms outstretched in diagonal lines. The colors used are dark and rich, set against an even darker background. Caravaggio had a firm grip on how to create drama on canvas by playing with light, shade, color and tradition.

What makes his style so interesting is the influence of the Carracci school on top of his own solid foundation shaped by his first mentor, the Mannerist Denys Calvaert. In his paintings, Reni uses the naturalism learned from Annibale to depict scenes on earth while using the more otherworldly characteristics and colors of Calvaert to portray the heavens. These two influences fuse again in Reni’s figures, where the solidity of the bodies of Reni’s saints and humans are naturalistic yet the positions they occupy are sometimes very mannerist. His figures developed farther under Ludovico, as he “. . . became more concerned with an emotionally warm and intimate expression and rhythmically flowing disposition of the figures and draperies”.

From the main characters or focal point of the painting to the angel and men in the background. The shapes are curvilinear and irregular. The scene is almost perfectly symmetrical divided between Rolin and Mary with Jesus. Mary and Jesus faces are softer and more rounded than Rolin’s cleanly shaven face is more squared in its overall shape. Jesus body is also depicted using rounder shapes.

Massaccio’s Holy Trinity shows implied lines and outlines with a one point perspective. The one point perspective is shown by the people and their placement especially Christ at the center point. The artist made the painting ornate and with a sense of joy among the distress. He uses squares to enhance the depth of the painting. The colors as well, create a low temperature with vibrant yellow to help set the tone of the painting.

An ominous version of this painting is done by the successful artist Caravaggio’s version of The Betrayal of Christ, and in this approach of the painting there is more of a dramatic feeling to it. The figures displayed here play an important role, from left to right, we can see John, Jesus, Judas, three Roman soldiers and a man in the back holding a lantern which seems to provide one of the paintings light sources, although the primary light source is not evident. An interesting character is placed in the back, Carravigo himself is located at the upper right-hand corner of the painting. When it comes to the subject matter, it has a deeper appeal to one’s emotions, since the use of dark colors, contrast a sense of sadness and despair, the characters

John the Baptist has the privilege of baptizing Jesus therefore he plays an important role in not only the Gospel of Mark, but in Jesus’ life. John proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:7-8) This baptism was showing that we need to “repent for the forgiveness of our sins.” (Mark 1:4) John is aware of how mighty Jesus is, and knows that he is the coming of God, the man of all creation. John baptized Him in the Jordan, where afterwards Jesus “saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.” (Mark 1:10) Evidently, Jesus being baptized

Everyone, who has studied the Gospel, has heard of John the Baptist. He had prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry long before He came to earth. He was just a man, who baptized other people, who believed. There is a lot more to John the Baptist though.

The writer reminds us that the Lord Jesus has made it possible for us to have access to God and lead in a daily relationship with him through his son Jesus Christ. He goes on to say that the greatest gift we have is to know and feel we are connected to a loving, forgiving, powerful Heavenly Father. Dr. Mollette tells us that we need God. People want to know and feel that they are connected to him. The author made a few points in regards to the church. He tells us that if the church is filled with people who have never experienced conversion, then the church will be overwhelmingly uncommitted. It will also be a church which will be overwhelmingly lost.