Submitted by Bija Knowles on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 11:06
Caravaggio was not a man of his time. As gay icon, father of modern painting and enigmatic artistic rebel, he speaks volumes to 21st century audiences visiting his current exhibition in Rome. The realism and drama that he transmitted onto canvas seem surprisingly fresh, while also connecting us with the feel and detail of life in the early 17th century.
But his portraits of youths - again, not typical of the early 1600s - seem to hark back to an era more than 1,000 years before his time. His sensuous appreciation of the male form, which scandalised his 17th century patrons, had more in common with Roman and Greek artistic traditions, which openly celebrated the male beauty, as well as pederastic relationships.
Martydom of St Processo and St Martiniano was executed for an altar of the right transept of St Peter's Basilica. The references to the Martyrdom of St Erasmus, painted by Poussin for a nearby altar, are clear, so much so that the two works were considered at first as being in competition with one another.
Contemporaries acknowledged that the purely Caravaggio style painting (due to its realism and the particular use of light) of Valentin exceeded that of Poussin in naturalism, force, richness and harmony of colour.
The Entombment of Christ was revolutionary in its counter-reformation time, with its highly naturalistic reconstruction of a gospel event. Even near contemporary critics of Caravaggio and his style, such as Baglione and Bellori, admired this painting greatly
A diagonal cascade of mourners and cadaver-bearers descend to the limp, dead Christ and bare stone. The painting is not a moment of transfiguration, but of mourning. Unlike the gored post-crucifixion Jesus in morbid Spanish displays, Italian Christs die generally bloodlessly, and slump in a geometrically challenging display. As if emphasizing the dead Christ's inability to feel pain, a hand enters the wound at his side.
The immense Vatican Museums, founded in 1506, house a huge wealth of works both commissioned for and acquired by the Roman Catholic Church throughout its history. The museums were founded when a Greek sculpture of the Trojan priest Laocoon was bought by Pope Julius II. He put the sculpture on public display, thus beginning the fascination with the Church's treasures.
The museums soon expanded rapidly. Pope Pius XI ordered the construction of a purpose-built edifice; the Pinacoteca Vaticana. This houses paintings by such renowned Rennaissance artists as Michelangelo, Raphael and Fra Angelico. Museums such as the Pio-Clementino, Chiaramonte, Gregoriano Etrusco and the Egiziano were joined most recently in 1973 by the Collection of Modern Religious Art.
Some highly famous works are on display at the museums, including the Sistine Chapel, Caravaggio's Entombment, the Raphael Rooms and the Gallery of Maps, painted by Ignazio Danti. Each year the museums attract over 4 million visitors.
Caravaggio was not a man of his time. As gay icon, father of modern painting and enigmatic artistic rebel, he speaks volumes to 21st century audiences visiting his 
