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Semester 2

Caravaggio, 'the man who came to destroy painting,? (HIAR10122)

Subject

History of Art

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 3 History of Art courses at grade B or above, and please note that we will not consider History courses unrelated to Art, or practical Art courses, towards these pre-requisites. We will only consider University/College level courses. Please see Additional Restrictions below.

Course Summary

'Caravaggio came into the world to destroy painting' (Nicolas Poussin as reported by André Félibien). This course will situate Caravaggio's controversial painting within the historical parameters of its making, while at the same time addressing the complex critical legacy that his work invoked. If his paintings stimulated a European-wide following among artists and patrons, they also provoked vehement criticism as well as outright rejection. Against the didactic precepts of Europe's emerging art academies dedicated to the principles of Disegno, Caravaggio painted large canvases without recourse to preparatory drawings. According to his own statements he worked without reference to the canons of ancient sculpture or High Renaissance art, instead painting an unmediated art of natural observation directly transposed onto canvas. Thus he claimed to work outside the history of art. The course will both consider and challenge this claim. We will analyse both the means, and the effects, of his painting methods, considering his use and choice of models as well as his extempore technique brought to light by twentieth-century scientific probings of his paint surfaces. Finally, we will study the writings of his critics to understand the traditions of art against which Caravaggio pitted his work.

Course Description

1. Overview2. Caravaggio's Biographies: Mancini / Baglione / Bellori3. Caravaggio's Working Processes: conservation histories4. Painting the Streets: Gypsies and Cardsharps5. Painting to Please: Music Paintings6. Painting Faith: Contarelli Chapel, S Luigi dei Francesi7. Painting Faith: Cerasi Chapel, S Maria del Popolo8. Painting Faith: Death of the Virgin / Entombment, S Maria in Vallicella9. After Rome: Painting in Naples, Malta, Sicily10. Painting? Or Iconoclasm? Medusa / Capitoline St John

Assessment Information

Written Exam 50%, Coursework 50%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on a History of Art exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in one 3rd year History of Art course each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. Enrolment in a second course from this group will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the January Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the extremely limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

view the timetable and further details for this course