Caravaggio and the Beginnings of Baroque

One of my favorite artists is Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), a dynamic Italian painter who lived a brief and tumultuous life.  Around 1600 Caravaggio developed his famous style of extreme chiaroscuro (painting form with lights and darks) known as "tenebrism" which was a turning point in art.  I have always felt the Renaissance ended and the Baroque began with this style of painting.

The Calling of Saint Matthew, Caravaggio  (1599-1600)

Contarelli Chapel, Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome

His style was criticized as being too realistic in Italy because he frequented taverns and brothels and used the people he met there as his models for subjects in religious painting.  However he had a near immediate stylistic influence on Dutch, French and Spanish art as well as influencing the next generation of Italian painters.  Let’s look at two of my favorite Caravaggio paintings, starting with The Calling of St. Matthew, in Rome.

This breathtaking painting is still located in the church it was painted for; it shows the moment in time when Christ calls Matthew to be one of his apostles.  Matthew is in a tavern, his companions are immersed in drinking and gambling.  Caravaggio paints everyone in modern dress though the subject is biblical, this way the contemporary viewer will be able to relate to the saint.  With this painting Caravaggio draws the viewer into the painting, it was not common for figures in a painting to have their backs turned to you, but he includes this type of realism as another way to relate to the subject.

Though his friends are still partaking in gambling, Matthew feels the Holy Spirit descend upon him and there is no doubt that he will follow Christ.  The influence of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling is clear, the extended arm and hand of Christ is that of Adam (seen below).  

Creation of Man, Michelangelo Buonarotti, 1510

Sistine Chapel Ceiling frescoes, Vatican, Italy

This can be interpreted as a direct link between the sins of Adam and the redemption of man due to the sacrifice of Christ.  There is also a symbol foreshadowing the death of Christ, the cross.  If at first you don’t see it then look again at the window panes, there is the cross in the center.  This would have been more apparent to the contemporary viewer; such large window panes are everywhere today but would have been rare at the time. 

The Conversion of Saint Paul, Caravaggio  (1600-01)

Chigi Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome

One of my very favorite paintings is Caravaggio's The Conversion of Saint Paul.  This painting actually made me stagger backwards in awe and almost fall when I saw it in person for the first time in Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome.  The image is powerful in its simplicity of design which was not typical of painting at the time.  Usually paintings were crowded with many figures, here the message has a greater impact.  Caravaggio shows the moment in time when the Roman soldier Saul, hears the voice of God.  He is stunned and is knocked from his horse by this powerful moment as he is converted to the Christian, St. Paul.  This was criticized for focusing on “the ass of a horse" in a holy painting, but with St. Paul falling towards the viewer and breaking the perceived space of the painting, it is a groundbreaking work of art and another way the artist connects the viewer to the image.

Compare this with the work of a popular artist at the time, Annibale Caracci.  Caracci's Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is located in the same chapel next to The Conversion of St. Paul.  It was done in the typical style of the time and while it is an exuberant painting, it doesn't match the solemn realism of Caravaggio.  The subject matter takes place in another realm, unlike Caravaggio's paintings which nearly include the viewer.

The Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Annibale Caracci (1600-01)

Chigi Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome

Penitent Magdalene, Georges de la Tour, 1640, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

While other painters after Caravaggio use tenebrism, he alone used as his light source a holy light coming from God or religious figures. Compare this to the French artist, Georges de la Tour’s Penitent Magdalene.  He was a Caravaggisti (follower of the style of Caravaggio) and while it is a remarkable painting, the light source is a candle rather than the use of holy light.

Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes, Artemisia Gentileschi, 1625,

Detroit Institute of Arts

Another powerful example of a work by a Caravaggisti, is Judith and her Maidservant, by Artemisia Gentileschi from roughly the same period.  This is a stunningly well executed painting but Gentileschi also uses a candle as her light source.

                                                                

Caravaggio shows us that by following the holy light of God, people are coming out of the darkness that they have been living in.  His paintings contain few figures, but the others in the painting are surrounded by darkness.  He could relate to the sinners in his paintings as he was frequently in trouble with the law.  In a drunken brawl he killed a man in Rome and spent several years in exile going to Naples, Malta and Sicily before heading back to Rome where he died a tragic death at age 38.  During his lifetime painted few works, however the works he left behind had an enormous influence on painting.


The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas is going to have a Caravaggio exhibit this fall, the following is from their website:

Kimbell Art Museum

Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome, October 16, 2011 through January 8, 2012

One of the most intriguing and influential figures in the history of art, Caravaggio (1571–1610) overturned the artistic conventions of the day and created stunningly dramatic paintings, both sacred and secular. This ambitious exhibition explores the profound impact of his work on the wide range of painters of Italian, French, Dutch, Flemish, and Spanish origin who resided in Rome. Arranged by theme, it includes about 60 paintings, with Caravaggio's compelling images juxtaposed with those he inspired.

The Laocoön

I have been reading an interesting book “The Mirror of the Gods” by Malcolm Bull.  The author discusses the revival of Greco-Roman mythology during the Renaissance and how those myths show up in art.  In the book he briefly discusses the stunning Laocoön sculpture group, one of my favorite sculptures.  It would be worth taking a trip to Rome just to see it.  Bull mentions this sculpture when he is talking about the sources that Renaissance artists and patrons had for referencing mythology.

Laocoön, Roman copy from 1st c. AD after 2nd c. BC Hellenistic original, Vatican Museums

Laocoön (pronounced lah-ock-o'-own) was a figure in the Trojan war, he was a priest who warned the Trojans not to accept the Trojan horse as a gift.  However the goddess Athena wanted to see Troy defeated so she sent serpents to strangle Laocoön and his sons, it is that moment which is being shown.  This is an extremely powerful image and a good example of the Hellenistic style in Greek sculpture.  This was marked by an extreme realism and often with a dramatic subject matter.  The struggle for life and death is evident in all figures, both in their contorted poses and in their expressions.

Dying Slave, Michelangelo Buonarotti, 1513-15, Louvre

The original Greek statue was lost but a Roman copy (today in the Vatican) was discovered in Rome in an excavation in 1506.  Michelangelo was in Rome at that time and was one of the first to see it.  The sculpture was a huge influence in Michelangelo’s own work, the twisting torso showed up many times in his sculptures.  He was painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescos at the time and the musculature and anatomy seen in the Laocoön group can be seen in the Sistine Chapel ceiling figures.  A good example is seen in the figures surrounding God Separating Darkness and Light.

God Separating Darkness and Light, Michelangelo Buonarotti, 1509,

Sistine Chapel Ceiling fresco, Vatican, Italy

This was a well known and highly praised work of art in the Renaissance, so I found it surprising when I found that it never became a popularly represented myth in painting or sculpture. 

There were very few original images I could find from the 16^th through 19^th centuries, such as this painting by El Greco.  

Laocoön, El Greco, c-1610, National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.)

Ancient Rome, Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1757, Metropolitan Museum of Art

However there were quite a few works of art during that same time period which referenced the Laocoön in the Vatican.  There were several sculptural copies, many prints and etchings and more than a few paintings which included the work.  One example is Panini’s painting gallery of Ancient Rome (he painted three versions) that show a variety of ancient sculptures and buildings in Rome.

The Finding of the Laocoön, Hubert Robert, 1773, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

Another example is 18^th century French Neoclassical painter Hubert Robert’s The Finding of the Laocoön, where the scene of this discovery is imagined in a romanticized scene.  In The Mirror of the Gods, Bull does wonder why some scenes from mythology are popularly represented in art and why some are not.  He discussed that usually this happens with a little known myth or where the original representations of it aren’t well known.  That is clearly not the case with the Laocoön.  Were there few other original interpretations because the sculpture is so striking that it set too high a standard for other artists to compete with?  Even if other original depictions of the Laocoön story did not commonly show up in art, this sculpture had a definite influence on art centuries after it was unearthed.

6 Different Guitar Picking Styles

New guitar players will sometimes overlook their right-hand to pay attention to all of the activity on the left. But the picking hand holds the keys to a variety of textures and styles. This summary of various picking techniques will help you to explore some of these textures and then incorporate them into your guitar playing.

Downstroke

This is the first one everybody learns. Using your pick you will stroke downward, towards the ground, then let it come to rest against the succeeding guitar string (known as a "rest stroke"). Make certain that you do not pick out from the guitar and into thin air. To do so results in a longer gap to get to your following note and there is a greater risk that you may come back to the incorrect string. Employing the rest stroke allows the pick to move within a finite space each time, training your hand muscles to come back correctly for the upcoming note.

Double Stroke

Double stroke or "alternate picking" means alternating down strokes with up strokes. It's usually used for 8th notes and faster. Although at times you'll use all downstrokes for 8th notes depending on just how much aggression the song demands. As with the downstroke, you need your pick to come directly back upwards, rather than away into thin air. In order to accomplish this, ensure that you're moving sideways with your wrist not rotating your lower arm at the elbow. Make sure you are alternating: down - up - down - up. You will find picking techniques which will occasionally repeat a down or up movement, nevertheless, you will need to get good at this even double picking first so that you don't develop undesirable habits.

Sweep Picking

This kind of picking style may be used for speedy arpeggio runs. The idea entails stringing together all downstrokes or all upstrokes on adjacent strings in order to sound a quick series of notes. Think of it in this way: Get a barre chord and, instead of a typical strum, pick through each of the guitar strings using a down stroke in a single fluid motion towards the floor. After that do the very same using up strokes. The difference will come in your left-hand. For a sweep picked line your left hand should not hold down all the notes at once, but one at a time, like a normal single note melody. The big aim at this point is to have clean articulation between the notes and don't let them ring together. All using that steady single movement in your right-hand.

This may not be a technique that everybody needs to have, however it's a striking tool for your guitar player tool box. This can also be used in a simpler way, for a few notes as opposed to a massive flurry.

Music artists to listen to: Yngwie Malmsteen, Herman Li (of Dragonforce), and Frank Gambale.

Fingerpicking

This approach calls for losing your pick entirely and simply using your fingers. It is prominent in classical music as well as folk and world music styles, but can also be used for almost anything you would like. In general, the thumb will deal with the bottom two or three strings and your second, 3rd, and 4th fingers are going to deal with the top three strings. You can experiment with a rest stroke, which is similar to the picking option above where by your finger tip comes to rest against the next string. The other option is a free stroke in which your finger tip finishes its motion hovering above the guitar strings. Free strokes are usually used for chord arpeggios in which you want the notes to ring against each other. Rest strokes are used for melodies where you want cleaner articulation between your notes.

Music artists to listen to: Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits), Andres Segovia, Merle Travis, and Joao Gilberto

Hybrid Picking

This style uses a pick, held as normal between your thumb and second finger, plus your additional fingers used bare. You'll find it's good for articulating clean bass lines as you are playing chords or melodies on the upper strings using your fingertips. You might also use it along with ordinary picking techniques when you have to hit notes on non-adjacent strings.

Music artists to listen to: Buckethead, Brad Paisley, Albert Lee, Brian Setzer

Finger Picks and Thumb Picks

These are guitar picks that are attached to each individual finger (excluding the pinkie) and thumb by a plastic band. The principles are generally basically the same as those regarding fingerpicking. The big difference is that the picks provide a sharper, louder sound as compared to regular fingerpicking. A lot of players use only the thumb pick as a substitute for a traditional pick. Finger and thumb picks are most often used by banjo players, yet also by slack key, Dobro, and slide players.

Beauty & Bounty: American Art in an Age of Exploration

A new exhibit called Beauty & Bounty: American Art in an Age of Exploration just opened at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) featuring American landscape painters in the 19th century.  What better way to start off the long holiday weekend celebrating Independence Day than by going to see this exhibit on Friday night?  Unfortunately my friends and I got off to a late start and we didn't have as long as we would like in the museum before they closed, however in that short time I did see a lot and also found out some of the reasons for painting landscapes at that time.  I also learned of some new favorite painters such as William Keith, Grafton Tyler Brown and pioneer daughter Emily Inez Denny whose view of the San Juans was among my favorite paintings.

Mount Rainier Bay of Tacoma, Sanford Robinson Gifford, 1875, Seattle Art Museum

I went from room to room gasping in awe as I saw each painting and wishing I had more time to spend in front of them.  While the artists in this exhibit weren’t working in one specific style there were definitely commonalities in the work.  American landscape painting from this time period can best be described as majestic.  It is bittersweet to look at the paintings knowing some of these landscapes aren’t there anymore but for those that remain these paintings would inspire anyone to want to visit all the places depicted.

SAM’s website states this about the exhibit:

“When the first surveyors went westward, they took painters and photographers with them to create images that would fire the collective imagination of a nation and draw emigrants westward.

Albert Bierstadt's painting of Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast for example, was deemed a virtuous enterprise for attempting to transport viewers to a still unknown region of the country. We tend to think of landscape art as a record of an artist's personal, intimate experience in nature, but in the nineteenth century, artists painted the American landscape as a response to the enthusiasms of their audience, too. They led us to remote places of natural splendor and abundance, and we followed, leaving our own marks upon the land.”

Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast, Albert Bierstadt, 1870, Seattle Art Museum

I have always loved the German born painter Albert Bierstadt and his panoramic and sweeping views of landscapes.  This work at SAM has always fascinated me; I now know Bierstadt painted this without seeing the Puget Sound which is why it is so unusual.  The landscape is dramatic, but it doesn’t actually exist.  Bierstadt based it off a combination of the Atlantic coast and mountainous areas he had seen.

However the rest of the paintings give an accurate view of American vistas from coast to coast.  There were examples of the rocky shores of Maine, Niagra Falls, several mountain ranges (Catskills, Adirondacks, and Rockies), the Grand Canyon, the Yosemite Valley and the Pacific Northwest among others.

There was also a sizable collection of landscape photography and if I hadn’t been ushered out by the museum guards (yes we were the last to leave the building) I would have seen that too, but I’ll be back.  This exhibit runs from June 30 to September 11, 2011 and has an accompanying catalog.  Also, there is a concurrent program running on Public TV station KCTS 9 called Land of Beauty and Bounty.

A Painting by Any Other Name

How much does the title of an artwork affect how we respond to it? It is an interesting question, especially because until the first salon exhibits started under King Louis XIV in 1667 at the French Royal Academy, there wasn’t a tradition of artist’s giving their work a title.  Sometimes a title was given and more often than not works were left untitled. There wasn’t a need as paintings and sculptures were commissioned by patrons who requested a specific theme and no one envisioned either museums or future historians discussing each work. 

Gerard ter Borch, Parental Admonition, 1654-55 (Rijksmuseum)

In fact most famous paintings created before the 18th century were actually named by art historians or museum curators in the 19th century for the purpose of research or cataloguing work.  Even in the 17th century when art was painted for the general art market and galleries, the modern idea of giving all works of art a title wasn’t in place yet.  We will look at three examples, all from Dutch 17th century art, a time when many “genre” paintings or scenes of everyday life were created.

The painting above, ter Borch’s Parental Admonition is a good example of a wrongly titled painting.  It was originally incorrectly interpreted as a set of parents scolding their young daughter who bows her head shamefully.  However upon closer examination it was determined to be a scene at a brothel.  Brothel scenes and allegories of sin were a popular theme in the 17th century Netherlands.  Another example of a painting given an incorrect title can be seen below in ter Borch’s contemporary, Samuel van Hoogstraten The Slippers.  

Samuel van Hoogstraten, The Slippers, 1654-62 (Louvre)

We have on the surface a quiet interior setting without figures with two slippers in the foreground.  On closer examination we have before us another allegory of lust and temptation.  The slippers are not a set, there is one man’s and one woman’s.  A broom in the foreground has been left to the side as if to suggest that the woman who was cleaning (the mistress of the house or maybe a maidservant) and the master of the house have snuck into the bedroom together.  The painting within the painting, the Father Admonishing his Daughter by Netscher was a variation of the above work by Gerard Ter Borch. The contemporary viewer would have taken note of the extinguished candle and immediately understood what was going on.

 

Jan Steen, The Doctor’s Visit, 1658-62, private collection

The last painting we will look at is The Doctor’s Visit by Jan Steen, an artist who did several variations on this theme.  Paintings of young women who were visited by doctors were often titled either “The Doctor’s Visit” or “The Lovesick Woman” but more accurately these are an allegory of sin or lust.  The “lovesickness” in question is usually pregnancy outside of marriage.  Many symbols in these paintings refer to love and lust and again the scene would have been instantly recognizable to the contemporary Dutch viewer.

Titles are something all viewers should carefully consider, who exactly gave a work of art its title?  When it was the artist a whole other level of information is suggested to the viewer and when it was a historian sometimes that level of information is missing or a new subject is implied.  This is an interesting subject area and one I will come back to.

Practise Methods and Approaches for Students of Musical Instruments

Many of us wanting to learn an instrument will initially want to play certain songs or pieces by our favourite bands or musicians. This is great for inspiration and will offer a goal, and in exchange for our efforts in practising on the instrument the goal will be realised. The journey from goal to achievement will depend on many factors, but the ones we are interested in here are the best methods for practise.

Over many years I have bought countless books and materials hoping to find new and different approaches to learning. While some of the techniques in these books will have contributed to my development some may have been far less successful.

After studying these materials one of the most valuable learning tools I have adopted is the implementation of repeating passages or sections of music to degrees that may seem unnecessary. So instead of practising a passage for example 10 times, it would not be unreasonable to practise it 100 times although you may feel you have already mastered the passage after 10 repeats. It is also important to note that these repeated passages should be untainted in terms of bad execution of the notes involved. A poorly performed passage should not be considered a repeated passage in this context.

The number of times you attempt a passage or piece of music is not the only important factor in learning it, the speed at which it is practised and how comfortable it is to play will also affect your success. As mentioned previously a passage played badly is not a passage worth counting so one way to improve the number of times a passage can be played without error is to bring the tempo down. I believe this is one of the most crucial aspects to learning a musical instrument, to be comfortable to play the music at every tempo below the one you are aiming for.

Here is an idea of how to tackle a new section of music: Start by playing the passage at a speed where you can play all the notes perfectly however slow this may seem. At this tempo play the passage 100 times. If you played the passage 100 times without error, try increasing the tempo by 5 beats per minute and see if you can play another 100 without error. If this increased tempo causes problems try stepping down the tempo to only 2 beats per minute faster than the original any repeat the process. With this method there is quite a high demand for discipline and dedication in order to stay on track but the outcome can be worth it.

A good test to see if the method is working is to try the passage or piece of music as soon as you start playing your instrument the next day. You may feel slightly more comfortable with the notes or you may decide it is just as hard. It is important to remember that it may take a lot of time to see any improvement so don't be put off if the method does not yield results straight away.

With many students of an instrument, after a certain period of development they will fall into a state where they no longer need to learn anything new and will just play the same lick or song over and over again, for a period of years sometimes. They will no doubt become very comfortable playing these licks and songs and I believe this principle can be applied to learning new material only that more work is needed to be put in.

Learn Piano All by Yourself

Do you believe that you can actually learn piano without the need of hiring a piano teacher or music instructor? Believe it or not, that is definitely possible. As long as you are determined to learn how to play the piano, there are a lot of ways on how you can do it on your own.

Piano is one of the most fascinating percussion instruments. A lot of people think of it as the most elegant musical instrument. Everybody knows that the piano was invented so many decades ago, but still, it is still widely used nowadays. If you want to pursue a musical career or if you want to become a musician someday, learning how to play the piano is one of the things that you should do.

If you are interested to learn how to play the piano, you should first ask yourself if you are ready for it. You should consider all of the things that you do on a daily basis. Of course, you need to adjust your schedule if you have work or other daily commitments.

Teaching yourself on how to play the piano is similar to self studying. Even though you do not have a teacher or tutor to guide you, you still need to have all of the resources that will provide you knowledge such as books, magazines, and other type of reading materials. Since the technology today is already advanced, you can say that learning resources are not limited to hard copies only. You can also use the Internet to get as many resources as you want. What is good about using the web to learn how to play the piano is that it is full of any type of information and tutorials that you can use whether you are a beginner, an intermediate, or an expert pianist. Not only that. If you want to pursue a career in the music industry, you should always be updated with the different piano playing styles out there. All of the piano playing information that can be found on the Internet are updated from time to time.

Learning piano all by yourself might take a lot of your time, but it is really rewarding. You need to read all of your modules first before taking everything that you have learned into action. What is good about self learning is that you will be able to learn all of the limitations, risks, as well as the different strategies that will work best for you. You just need patience in order for you to become a successful pianist.

If you want to learn piano all by yourself, you need to love reading and watching videos. You might need to read a lot of books and watch a lot of video tutorials that will help you on your way to success. Since there are so many resources out there, you need to be careful in choosing the best ones. Some good online resources are not free, but do not worry because most of them are affordable. It is always good to invest in premium piano tutorial resources. You can keep them as long as you want. You may also share them with your family and friends who are also interested to learn how to play the piano.