Denial of Saint Peter by Caravaggio Tekoa Criddell Course: Baroque & Rococo Art Professor: Claudia Goldstein Student: Tekoa Criddell Essay: Denial of Saint Peter by Caravaggio
Assignment: For their semester project, students were asked to choose a specific work of art and use it as the basis for
an oral presentation and an eight-page research paper examining the work’s particular historical context.
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, usually known simply as Caravaggio, is a revolutionary artist from the Baroque period, and his tumultuous life is almost as enrapturing as his paintings. In his painting Denial of Saint Peter, he not only displays mastery over the materials but displays a tone apparent in many of his later works. In this essay, I will explore Caravaggio’s life and the controversy therein, along with the story of Saint Peter, relating his struggles with Caravaggio’s. Furthermore, I will discuss how the composition and techniques used in the painting help illuminate these themes.
most definitely affected his work. Certain elements of his work, such as emphasis on light and color, precise handling of paint, and a more naturalistic style all come from the influence of his first master and the artists he emulated: great painters such as Titian, Tintoretto, Lotto, and Savoldo1. His penchant for chiaroscuro and tenebrism may have come from the influence of art he saw in Milan, such as Leonardo daVinci’s Virgin of the Rocks. Also, the religious climate of his environment, at the height of CounterReformation Italy, may explain the pared-down and solemn elements to his rendition of the apostle Peter’s greatest mistake.
Caravaggio was born in Milan, Italy to his father Fermo Merisi and Lucia Aratori. His father was both from and worked for a man in the town of Caravaggio, which became his artistic namesake. He became an apprentice to Mannerist painter and student of Titian Simone Peterzano in 1584. Although Caravaggio spent most of his life and career in Rome, this time and early experience with the art style of Northern Italy
Caravaggio, for all his talent, is well-known for his personal failings as much as his triumphs. He has a reputation of being quick to violence, a sort of 16th century renegade. You can see this documented early Gash, John M. “Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da.” Grove Art Online. 2003 1
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