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Caravaggio Masterwork Shows Christ's Passion
by Nora Hamerman
http://www.catholicherald.com/articles/00articles/carravag.htm
An unusual masterpiece of religious art, Caravaggio's "Taking of
Christ," is temporarily on view in this area as the centerpiece of a
special exhibition entitled "Saints and Sinners in Baroque Painting" at
the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
The picture, originally painted for Cardinal Girolamo Mattei in 1602,
went unrecognized for centuries and came into the possession of the
Society of Jesus of Ireland during the 1930s. When Father Noel
Barber, the Jesuit Provincial Delegate in Ireland, asked the National
Gallery of Ireland for help in cleaning the darkened painting less than
a decade ago, its real identity as a lost Caravaggio was uncovered.
The dramatic picture is an excellent example of how Caravaggio
succeeded in fulfilling the injunction of the Council of Trent for a new
religious art that would "teach, delight and uplift" the viewers. The
very format brings it literally into our faces. Unlike traditional religious
paintings, in which the figures
were often full length and viewed at a safe distance, the saints and sinners of Caravaggio's work are portrayed life-size and at halflength,
just as we would see them if they were only a few feet away from ourselves.
Christ, Judas, the capturing soldiers, a fleeing apostle and a witness with a lantern are all picked out of the dark surroundings by
brilliant spotlights which emphasize their hands and faces, hallmarks of Caravaggio's "tenebrist" style which became so influential in
the seventeenth century and spread
rapidly from Rome throughout Europe. The viewer's eyes are drawn toward the suffering face of Christ and his hands folded in a
gesture of submission, together with the furrowed brow of Judas as he seizes Christ with a grimy hand to kiss Him. Both heads are
framed in the flying red cloak of the fleeing apostle on the left.
Surprisingly, the physical center of the composition is occupied not by these primary characters, but by the shiny armor of the
protruding shoulder of the soldier who seizes Christ at the moment of the betraying kiss. Caravaggio frequently used mirrors in his
paintings to incite the viewer to self-contemplation and examination of conscience, and the armor may be intended as a
metaphorical mirror.
The artist added his own self-portrait to the scene as a witness, the man holding a lantern at the far right edge of the canvas.
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