Caravaggio ‘The Taking of Christ’
Sitting in Philosophy it dawned on me that today is Holy Thursday. So since I'm having an Existential crisis I thought it would be good to visit Caravaggio and have a chat, do some writing as is my prescription. National Gallery was closed at 6pm!! Every other Thursday the whole year it opens until 8.30pm. Sickened. It's still one of my favourites, because it reflects something I went through. Not comparing myself to Christ, but if you've even been betrayed by everyone close to you, you'll understand this painting, or at least the feeling behind it. Anyway here's what I wrote about this work..
As one of the most revolutionary artists in history, people relate to Caravaggio, also known as ‘Michael Angelo’. It is because Caravaggio paints human emotion and the true life experiences of ordinary people that many feel drawn to his work. Most people know Caravaggio for his use of dramatic lighting effects to illuminate his figures. His portrayal of real, raw and dirty life wasn’t very popular in Caravaggio’s time, 400 years ago. Fiery and often violent, the artist Caravaggio wasn’t very popular either. However, his gift was recognised amongst other artist, royalty, churchmen and connoisseurs alike for his ability to represent well known biblical stories and grounded a single momentous event in everyday life. However, he was all too often drinking on the streets late at night and getting into fights, for which he is rumoured to have carried a sword. Caravaggio was from a well to do family although lots of his models are men that he used to drink with on the street. To his contemporaries, Caravaggio’s use of live models was “the single most outstanding feature of his work” according to an article by Christiansen in 1986. The Italian master is known to have had a terrible temper and one night in Rome he killed another artist called Ranuccio Tomassoni in May 1606. Caravaggio went on the run to Rome, seemingly with a role of drawings and sketches under his arm.
The Mattei also commissioned The Taking of Christ which is on permanent loan to the NGI. How Caravaggio’s masterpiece The Taking of Christ came to its Dublin home at the national gallery is a story in itself. The spectacular rediscovery of this masterpiece was in a residence named the Society of Jesus, Dublin in 1990. The Taking of Christ went ‘missing’ for nearly 400 years, being attributed to another popular artist of the time, Gerard van Honthorst. A woman called Marie lea Wilson brought the painting to Ireland after she fell in love with it in Scotland in the early 1920’s. Marie’s husband was a British soldier in 1916 and was later killed. Marie then went on to become a doctor in Dublin. Marie lea Wilson later gifted this painting to the Jesuit community of Leeson Street, Dublin, because their faith had given her a sanctuary in troubled times. In the taking of Christ’ Jesus is just after being kissed on the left cheek by his friend Judas. Judas having identified Jesus, the guards rush in. Today looking at it up close, I realised that all the really dark background is a tree with leaves... Most likely the one Judas hung himself on. Caravaggio did know the scriptures even if he said that he never used them. On the far right of the composition you will see Caravaggio himself holding a lantern to ‘illuminate’ the scene. In playing the part for this scene Caravaggio looks like he got his hair cut so his right ear shows for this self-portrait in which he is taking the biblical position of Malcus. But whether he and the church had constant arguments he did know his stuff. Rumour has it that he was killed at 38 years old by the Knights of the order of Malta which is said to be documented in Vatican books. At his best Caravaggio was trying to position himself as being as good as Leonardo who died 80 years before this. Judas does look very similar to a Leonardo sketch, showing the influence Da Vinci had on Caravaggio’s work. In this piece, the ‘Taking of Christ’ I think Caravaggio proved his rightful position as one of the greatest Masters of all time.