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The Counter Reformation : A Response From The Catholic Church

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The Counter Reformation was a response from the Catholic Church in Europe after Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses and the church was losing support and control. Beginning in 1545 with the Council of Trent where the hierarchy of the church discussed ways preserves the Roman Catholic Church again the protestant movement. In protestant churches there was no art work because they believed that there is only one god to worship and worshiping any other such as the saints was against their belief system. So this is where the Catholic Church saw their opportunity to regain support; through art so to impress followers and bring in supporters from groups whom didn’t know how to read. Caravaggio was one of many artists in this time that painted and/or sculpted for the church, so let’s explore the effect the Counter Reformation had on his art work (Counter Reformation).
The first thing I’d like to look at in Caravaggio’s paintings is his choices of color and lighting. In his works he always used a lot of red for example in Salome with the Head of John the Baptist and in The Raising of Lazarus. Also, when taking into notice the placement and meaning of the color, we can see that there is a presence of an affect from the church. Red usually –in this time period- was seen as the devil’s color so in Caravaggio’s work I noticed that either the actors or accessories to the devil’s work are draped in red or if there is an act occurring there is red in the background like in Judith Beheading

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