Materials always effect an artists work. When new materials are discovered, new advances are able to be made. One advance that greatly affected the world of painting is the advent of oil paint. When oil paint was discovered, it allowed for artists to layer colors in a much more complicated and rich manner. Because of this it allowed for a much more deep saturated color then artists previously could achieve. This allowed the artists to be able to paint light in a manor that could not be replicated with older technology.
Titian's Pieta
One of the first great depictions of light in oil paintings was Titians Pieta. Titian was also known as Tiziano Vecellio. La Pieta by Tiziano Vecellio was a painting which Titian worked on for his own tomb, however by Titian’s death in 1576 the painting Peita was still left unfinished. The painting itself is done using faster, more bold brushstrokes, which visually provide the piece with a great of deal of movement. Titian wanted to capture the essence of the person in Peita, and wasn’t as interested in a completely perfect rendering as long as the idea that he intended was expressed. Peita is a large piece, measuring over eleven feet by eleven fit in size. It is oil paint over stretched canvas.
The imagery itself by Tiziano Vecellio shows a number of people in front of a large architectural niche that has an arc. In Titians La Pieta each person depicted has dramatic shadows and lighting on their figures. The figures represented are Virgin Mary holding the body of Jesus in her arms. To Mary’s right, on his knees, is a depiction of Nicodemus, who was a said to help prepare Jesus’s corpse for burial. Some people believe the Nicodemus depicted in La Pieta is actually a self-portrait of Tiziano Vecellio.
Another individual who mastered the use of oil paint on canvas was Michelangelo Mersi Caravaggio. Michelangelo Mersi ad Caravaggio’s painting, Calling of Saint Matthew, was painted in 1599-1600. It measures at eleven feet, one inch by eleven feet, five inches in size. Like Titians Pieta, Calling of Saint Matthew uses the dramatic effect of light in the painting. Caravaggio’s light usage, however, comes from a a technique known as tenebrism. Tenebrism is a specific type of painting in which all the characters are coming out of the dark and are brightly lit by one individual source of light. The technique tenebrism has been likened to the modern day usage of a spotlight. Tenebrism was a popular technique of Michelangelo Mersi Caravaggio.
The subjects depicted in Michelangelo Mersi Caravaggio’s painting are a group of people sitting around a table. Light is brightly sweeping from right to left across the painting fro what looks like a single source of light. The attention of everyone at the table is directed towards the right, and thus at the source of the light. The scene depicts a section of the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible. In the story, Jesus tells Matthew to follow him and Matthew does. The painting makes the scene come alive and simulates the tension and emotion in an extremely realistic sense.
One painter that proceeded Michelangelo Mersi ad Caravaggio’s time and had many of his paintings’ characteristics is Georges de La Tour. George de La Tour was the court painter to King Louis XIII in 1639. He had spent time in both Italy and the Netherlands where Michelangelo Mersi ad Caravaggio’s work was popular and undoubtedly would have come in contact with it. George de La Tour was actually considered a follower of Michelangelo da Caravaggio and the similarities are often apparent.
George de la Tour's Magdalen with the Smoking Flame
Like Caravaggio, the subject of George de La Tour’s paintings were often largely consistent of a strong central figure. Instead of Michelangelo da Caravaggio’s use of light, George de La Tour depicts the light source within the overall pictures. It becomes so bright that is becomes the main focal point within the piece. In the paintings Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, George de La Tour shows a candle that is shining onto a woman who is seated at a desk. She is mostly in the dark and looks somewhat somber. Her right hand is resting on a human skull, which is resting upon her lap.
The woman depicted in George de la tour’s Magdalen with the Smoking Flame is Mary Magdalen. Her pose is shown as leaning forward in a way which is supposed to make the painting feel more intimate. The idea behind the piece by George de la Tour is that Mary Magdalen has given up a rich and lavish lifestyle in order to meditate upon human life. The pice was painted in 1640 on oil on canvas and was forty-six and fourth by thirty-six and an eighth inches in size.
Titians Pieta, Michelangelo Mersi Caravaggio’s Calling of Saint Matthew and Georges de La Tour’s Magdalen with the Smoking Flame are three amazing paintings by threes masters of painting. Using oil paint over stretched canvas, a new material of the time, all three artists were able to show life and depict light in a method that had been previously done.
