Bacchus by Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio, is one of the most important artists of art history.
Nervous by temperament, often violent, revolutionary in his way of painting, Caravaggio personifies in any aspect of his eventful life the romantic figure of the damned artist.
Born in Milan, he worked mainly in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily. His training was influenced mainly by the Lombard and the Venetian painting: from the first he learned the use of the color, from the second he learned the deep realism and the preference for humble and popular subjects.
This last feature is observable in the famous Bacchus of the Uffizi, commissioned by his patron Cardinal del Monte as a gift for the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand I and painted between 1596 and 1597.
In this masterpiece Bacchus is not represented in an idealized way. On the contrary he might look like a man of the people, like one of those characters Caravaggio used to hang around with in taverns and brothels. As in the majority of his paintings, also here the landscape is missing: the artist wants to focus on the humanity of the characters rather than superfluous details. His choice of representing popular, uncouth and clumsy subjects brought him much criticism during his life.
Bacchus is depicted posing and holding a cup of wine with his left hand, as if he was reflected in a mirror. In fact Caravaggio used a complex system of mirrors to paint the subjects on canvas, just like a primitive photographic technique. Outstanding is the skillful use of the oil technique: the effect of incredible realism in painting the fruit basket and the complexion of the young man as well as the transparency of the glass founded a new approach to art.
A recent restauration has revealed the outline of a man’s face in the jug of wine in the foreground that is believed to be the self-portrait of the artist.
Unconventional, introspective, a real rebel, Caravaggio focuses on the human being, describing the imperfections and limitations of his mortal nature.
His way of painting upset forever the art history.
