Caravaggio - paintings of armor and edged weapons 1590s-1610

[shayde78]

I've been wanting to post this material for a long time. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio has been a long-time favorite artist of mine (maybe because we share a birthday!). Before I knew anything about art history, his style represented the epitome of Renaissance painting to me. In reality, his depictions of dramatic lighting are more associated with the Baroque movement that he inspired, but again, to me, this is pure Renaissance.

Of use for this forum is the fact that he was active during a narrow period of time (1590s-1610) and worked almost exclusively in Rome (he did have to flee after killing someone in Rome, and spent time in Naples, Sicily, and Malta). So, we are able to fix what he painted into a fixed time period and general locale. His technical abilities allowed him to attain a high degree of realism, and some of the details included in the depictions of hilts and armor is quite good considering the medium of oil paints.

I went through his complete works, as compiled by Taschen, and am posting here the examples that include depictions of knives, swords, spears, and armor. the usual caveats apply when discussing depictions of arms in visual arts - namely, the artists of this time period tend to depict costumes and items contemporary to the time period in which they worked. there is some creative license taken when depicting scenes from antiquity (to lend an 'exotic' air), but for the most part, we can assume much of what Caravaggio painted was what he himself was seeing in Rome at the time.

Out of nearly 200 total works, there are about a dozen that depict artifacts relevant to this forum. Although some dates are disputed, I did my best to post these in the order in which they were composed. I will indicate the date attributed to the work. I will also post each image individually to allow for easier reference if anyone would like to discuss, and I look forward to any such discussion.

But first, an image of the artist himself by Ottavio Leoni, 1621 (about 10 years after his death). You may see a resemblance to the head of Goliath as Caravaggio used himself as the model for that painting:

[shayde78]

Cardsharps; c.1594

I always was fascinated by the hilt at the waist of the young man in the foreground. I'd be grateful if anyone could find an actual dagger with a similar hilt. It would be easy to dismiss this as an artists simply being careless, but as you see subsequent works, I think you'll agree Caravaggio's attention to detail is hard to question.

[shayde78]

Martyrdom of St. Mathew; c. 1599/1600

This was the painting that made Caravaggio the 'most famous painter in Rome' because it departed so drastically form the poised, kind of artificial, posing of true Renaissance works and introduced a dramatic and dynamic style of composition that would inspire the Baroque generation.

The swords depicted are typical 1500s despite the time period and location being represented (1st Century CE, Ethiopia).

[shayde78]

The Conversion of St. Paul; c. 1600/01

This, and the next image, show a common subject for painters of Christian-era Europe. One can see some examples of armor components in this first painting.

[shayde78]

The Conversion of St. Paul; 1602

One can see a clearly represented hilt here with a simple, albeit large, side ring.

[shayde78]

The Taking of Christ; 1602

Here we can really start to see some of the detail portrayed in the representation of armor. I particularly like that the leather straps are clearly shown. The curl at the end is simply something that struck me as an extra touch of realism.