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I’ve mentioned before how a painting can change your mood, and I particularly noted Frans Hals and his ability to be a mood uplifter though his portraits. You can read a little more about him in Have Fun With Art part 1, and part 2. There’s something magical about his paintings with their quick brush strokes and vibrant expressions and colors. Even his more serious group portraits are full of life and seem to have captured a moment in time.

Life And Work

Frans Hals was born in Antwerp and lived and painted in the Baroque era in the early to mid seventeenth century. Most of his work includes high society portraits including the rich and powerful such as mayors (burgomasters) and the like, group portraits of militias and soldiers, and my favorite of his subjects singers and theatrical players.

He is known for the use of “timing” in his informal portraits, where a tavern goer is caught the instant he raises a glass, or a lute player in the process of strumming rather than posing. This style was used heavily by the Italian Caravaggio, who preceded Hals by some years.

Very few Hals paintings exist today and little is known about the man or his work early in his life and career. The first known success which put him in the art scene was The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company. This came when he was in his mid thirties, years after he was admitted into the group of artists in the Guild of Saint Luke.

Hals and Rembrandt

He is considered to be second only to Rembrandt in terms of great Dutch painters. While Rembrandt used mellow lighting and worked with chiaroscuro, Hals preferred strong daylight.

There is something to be said about the figures of each of the two Dutch masters. Rembrandt’s faces mainly seem idealized and all look alike in many paintings. The people in a Frans Hals painting, whether they be a couple or a large group all have distinguishable faces and personalities.

Lively Brush Strokes and Lively Subjects

Art historians look at Hals’ paintings and gather that although the brush strokes look quick, they are probably well planned and thought out. So the vivid and quick appearance is purposeful, while there are no mistakes with the strokes.

Some of his best paintings are the singular random subjects such as the Laughing Cavalier. Clearly not laughing in the pose, one can feel that a laugh may come at any moment, perhaps the very next instant after the moment caught in time that we see. Or the gypsy woman seen above. What could she be smirking at?

Some good ones include The Jolly Toper, Malle Babbe, and Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart.

Look at a whole bunch of Hals paintings, you can’t help yourself but smile.

Technorati Tags: art, artist, painting, painter, baroque, frans hals

As I wrote the title for this post I considered not comparing the two artists as it may subordinate one to the other. I speak of course about the Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, not to be confused with Michelangelo Buonarroti, who did the Sistene ceiling and David. As you can see the two share a given name although the former is known as Caravaggio, the town from whence he came, and the latter simply as Michelangelo. The two men had the same name but were great each in their own way.

The two artists were both Italian but lived at different times; Caravaggio was born seven years after Michelangelo’s death. Both could have been seen as arrogant and had personalities larger than life. While Michelangelo was an extremely versatile artist, he generally had a disdain for painting (although he did it masterfully). Caravaggio on the other hand was generally known for his paintings.

Master of Light And Shadow

Long before Rembrandt stepped onto the scene, this enigmatic Italian painter was innovating the use of chiaroscuro in his works. He is attributed with the invention of “tenebrism,” the use of extreme contrast of light and shadow for dramatic effect. This generally came in handy when portraying his religious themes, which dominate his resume. In the “Calling of St. Matthew” (see above) a single ray of light leads Christ’s gesture to the uncertain St. Matthew, as if to point to him, allowing the viewer’s eyes to follow to the focal point.

Artificial means were used in the studio such as mirrors and other highly reflective materials to shine light on his models. What results is almost theatrical in depicting his subjects flooded with light, producing strong shadows and contrasts.

Humble Models, Holy Subjects

Normal and plain looking people often found themselves in Caravaggio’s grand canvases, religious theme or not. What he loved most were his scugnizzi, or street boys. What he would accomplish was a unique envisioning of saints and angels as average looking common-folk. He would take these boys, who were anything but conventionally attractive, and raise them to a glorified status. A case in point is Bacchus. Here we see a young man lacking striking good looks, with an average adolescent’s musculature reclining in a slightly drunken manner, struggling to hold the wine glass still. Hardly a god, is he?

Another example was the “Madonna di Loreto” showing Mary, the Virgin with infant in a doorway with peasants kneeling before her feet. This painting was met with much criticism, looking far too common for a Heavenly subject. A wall with bricks falling apart, the dirt on the peasants’ feet, the plain clothes of the Mother of God were too worldly and lower class for the prominent art world at the time.

A Modern Look For Classic Content

Caravaggio was known for his wide use of anachronism in his paintings, often depicting classic or biblical stories with modern elements in them. See in the “Calling of Saint Matthew” above a Christ dressed in clothes of the 1st century Anno Domini in the room with men wearing contemporary Italian attire. You may see soldiers in armor of the 17th century shackling Christ, and characters in Baroque style feather caps, etc.

This style has been used throughout the history of art and is still used today. You can see it in cinema such as Julie Taymor’s depiction of Titus, but relevant here is Derek Jarman’s 1986 film Caravaggio. Following in the same style as its namesake, the film would show “Michely” in a bar with the ambiance of a television sports commentator in the background, or a miserly art patron using a calculator.

This movie is definitely worth checking out if you’re an art or Caravaggio fan. I must warn it is mostly fictionalized, but it does have an interesting story and is extremely poetic in its narration. The most interesting aspect is Jarman’s use of live models posing for actual Caravaggio paintings, whether it is for the actual painter to paint or just for show (when Caravaggio dies, posing as the “Entombment of Christ.”)

On The Run

Throughout his life, Caravaggio was known for his short temper and argumentative demeanor. He was a bawler liable to throw down at the drop of a hat, and it would eventually bring his downfall. In 1606, being prone to outbursts, our painter killed a tennis opponent over an argument about a match. Normally his friends in high places would get him out of trouble, but this proved too serious and they could do nothing to come to his aid. The last four years of his life were spent in exile and on the run from the authorities.

Caravaggio would flee to Naples, Malta, and Sicily all the while searching for a patron of power to help expunge his crimes. You can note the further toward 1610 and the farther he traveled the propensity toward gruesome and depressing paintings, most of which involved biblical stories. Scenes of decapitation became common, sometimes putting himself as the unfortunate receiver. Finding enemies everywhere, “so many labels on the luggage and hardly a friendly face,” it was impossible to settle down and escape the fear.

Eventually, in 1610 Michelangelo Merisi set out to beg the pardon of Cardinal Scipione Borghese with three final paintings intended as gifts. He never completed that journey and was never seen again. With no body found, his death remains a mystery to this day but most accounts claim he died of fever near Tuscany on July 18th.

Resources

An in-depth look into the life and works of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is definitely recommended for further knowledge on the Italian Baroque master. An article worth reading is the Wikipedia article found here

Another great article is on Charley Parker’s Lines and Colors, which you can link to on the right on the sidebar. The Caravaggio article can be found here.

One of the best websites I have ever had the pleasure of viewing on any artist is the “Complete Works of Caravaggio: An Impossible Exhibit.” This website shows the actual exhibition of 54 digital reproductions of Caravaggio paintings shown in one place. You can click on any painting to get an in-depth study. You can zoom in completely to see minute details, and hear commentary by several professionals about the works in detail. The website goes into the life and times of Caravaggio in depth. I don’t know of any other website that contains as much information on a single artist.

You can visit the website here or copy and paste:

http://www.caravaggio.rai.it/index_en.htm

Technorati Tags: Caravaggio, art, artist, painter, Baroque