BBC: One Caravaggio painting as distillation of indelible style
How the 17th-century artist’s last, violent painting (at the National in London) informed ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Mean Streets’
By Cath Pound | BBC
May 30 — As the record crowds flocking to see his last painting show, Caravaggio’s violent life and the cinematic intensity of his work have proved to be irresistible for centuries.
Caravaggio’s last painting, The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, is a neat distillation of everything that made the Italian artist such a unique, and enduringly fascinating figure, perhaps the most influential artist who ever lived. There is the characteristic close cropping and dramatic lighting, so often referred to as “cinematic”, as well as his revolutionary use of real figures for models, complete with grainy, weather-beaten skin and dirty fingernails.
There is also the artist himself, who appears as a horrified onlooker to Saint Ursula’s murder. Caravaggio would frequently represent himself in his paintings, and his violent, brutal life and death have often fascinated audiences as much as his work, a fact borne out most recently by the artist’s appearance as a source of inspiration to the nefarious anti-hero Tom Ripley in the recent Netflix series. That guest spot has perhaps played a part in the record crowds that this painting has attracted at The National Gallery in London, where it is currently on show as part of their 200th anniversary celebrations. And now a newly authenticated painting by the artist is going on show at the Prado museum in Madrid.
