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Caravaggio: Until the "cry of Medusa. Dangerous beauty: Medusa Gorgon from antiquity to the present day Caravaggio jellyfish description

Medusa Gorgon, Caravaggio, 1597-1598 Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Oil on canvas stretched over a wooden shield. 60; 55 cm (Those who saw the original can confirm that the picture on the shield makes an indelible impression).

The artist received an order to paint a picture on the plot of Ovid on the main shield from his patron, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, envoy of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany to the Papal Court in Rome, who wanted to present the shield as a gift to the Grand Duke Ferdinand I de Medici.

Presumably, Caravaggio created the Medusa in 1597-1598, since, according to documents, on September 7, 1598, the shield was already handed over to Antonio Maria Bianchi, the custodian of the ducal weapons, and from that moment it was in Florence, and since 1601 it was exhibited in a personal collection the Duke's weapons, along with the ceremonial knightly armor, presented to him by the Persian Shah Abbas the Great.

The authenticity of the first version, now in private collection, was not established until the 21st century, until it passed the examination by means of X-ray fluorescence analysis.

There was another mystery as well.
The Genoese poet Gaspare Murtola, who visited Rome in 1600, in one of his poems describes Caravaggio's Medusa, which he could see in his workshop.

However, at that time the shield presented to the Grand Duke Ferdinando was already in Florence. Later, in 1605, an inventory of the artist's belongings was made, among which was a shield, which he supposedly kept under a mattress wrapped in a blanket. Is it possible that the poet Murtola saw another, absolutely identical work by Caravaggio?

The find immediately attracted the attention of art historians, although at first many doubted the authenticity of this work, preferring to see it as an excellent copy. famous image. Only Professor Ermanno Zoffili insisted on X-ray analysis of the Medusa, feeling the hand of Caravaggio in it.

Recently released album in Italian and English under his editorship, “The First Medusa of Caravaggio” tells about the studies carried out over the past twenty years, which not only confirmed that this work belonged to the brush of Caravaggio, but also that it was she who was the first version of the Medusa, which the artist himself later repeated for a gift to the Grand Duke .

X-ray analysis helps to understand how Caravaggio was looking for an image, rethinking, reworking it, achieving the most perfect performance.

First, a preliminary charcoal drawing was made, which the artist corrected a lot and changed its position, adapting to the convex surface of the shield.

Initially, the eyes were lower, the mouth was shifted to the left, and the nose reached the position of the current upper lip. Then, on top of the drawing, Caravaggio made the first study with a brush, in which the facial features and dimensions of the image were very different from the first version. However, in the final version, the master returned to the drawing, retaining the dimensions of the study and making Medusa's features more human-like rather than a theatrical mask.

Headless characters of biblical or ancient history accompanied Caravaggio throughout his life. He gave many of them his own features, and in the first "Medusa" (which art historians call "Medusa Murtola" in memory of the poems of the Genoese poet) the features of the artist are also guessed, which are somewhat softened in the second version, where there is a slight resemblance to Fillide Melandroni, model of Caravaggio.

Finally, it has been established with certainty that the artist created at first a smaller Medusa, which he later almost completely repeated on a larger shield, using the methods of copying through glass or a convex mirror common for that time.

Denis Mahon believes that, given the importance of the order, Cardinal Del Monte advised Caravaggio to first make the first version, and only then proceed to the main work.

This work has been exhibited in Milan, Düsseldorf and Vienna since 2000, and there is no doubt that many art lovers will be able to see it in the future.

(From an article by Irina Barancheeva, Rome.06.04.2012)

Description of the painting by Inna Gusakova

"At one time, Leonardo da Vinci made a shield for the Medici family with the image of the Gorgon Medusa on it. Long years the shield was the talisman of the clan, it was believed that the shield helped to avoid failures and enemies, but over time it was lost. And almost simultaneously with the loss, the Medici began to pursue troubles and failures.

Cardinal del Monte, whose official artist was Caravaggio, decided to make a gift to Ferdinand 1 of the Medici and instructed the master to make such a shield. Caravaggio found a suitable wooden shield, and stretching a canvas over it, depicted his assistant and close friend Mario Minniti as the severed head of Medusa. With the help of a brush, he decided to capture in the picture a scream emanating from a severed head. Instead of hair, the artist draws writhing, furiously hissing, vicious snakes that are trying to throw themselves loose from the surface of the shield. Caravaggio achieves completely realistic picture.

If you look closely at the picture, then the head looks sunk into the shield, as if it is not on a convex shield, but on a concave surface. The head from pain and horror, choking in a death cry, gushing with streams of blood, sinks in convulsions inside the shield. Caravaggio manages to convey the emotional state and facial expressions in death throes.

The artist was often reproached for the static nature of his paintings. This picture, which does not produce any movement, is in fact filled with movement. She lives, moves and sounds at the same time. Caravaggio interprets in his own way famous myth and gives out a revolutionary vision of the picture.
He himself often said that he was familiar with all these emotions, and he often experiences such states, therefore this picture also carries the author's personal experiences, like almost all of his works. Many flattering words were said about the master, but the poet Giambattista Marino said best of all: "You won, the villain fell, And on the shield of Medusa the face, Such painting did not know, So that a cry was heard on the canvas"

Reviews

How talented was this artist! One thing is not clear here: how, with such short life there was so much to do that there was still time for fights, scandals and all sorts of adventures! So many followers, yes what! And if he had then taken a shadow in color, where would he be?!

Bacchus. About 1595.
The painting was unknown until 1917, was found in the storerooms of the Uffizi, and has been hanging there ever since.
Full name of the author Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Italian Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio)

What carnal delight in the forms of the body,

no less appetizingly written than fruits in a vase:

Fruits with traces and holes from caterpillars. Most of them are in a spoiled, inedible state, rotten. According to critics, they personify the frailty of worldly fuss.

"With his left hand, he holds out to the viewer a shallow glass of the same wine, as if inviting him to join him. Caravaggio created a non-idealized image ancient god but rather half drunk young man. A pampered young man with a plump, effeminate face - simple and sinful. The author carefully spelled out the repulsive details: under the nails of Bacchus there is dirt, it is possible that one of the street ragamuffins posed for the picture.

The painting of wine and glass is incomparable. And the boy drinks good, aged wine, which can be seen from the color:

"After cleaning the painting, a portrait of the artist working at the easel was found in the reflection on the glass of the decanter, and on the surface of the wine in the bowl it became possible to see the reflection of the face of Bacchus."
But I didn’t manage to remove the jug well, sorry.

Medusa Gorgon, (canvas on shield).

Presumably, Caravaggio created it in 1597-1598, since, according to documents, on September 7, 1598, the shield was already handed over to the custodian of the ducal weapons, Antonio Maria Bianchi, and from that moment he was in Florence.

Studies using X-rays and infrared rays showed that under the layer of painting, unlike other works by Caravaggio, no preparatory drawings and it was surprising. It seemed impossible that the artist had immediately painted the image on the convex surface of the shield, making only minimal corrections.
The mystery gradually began to be solved when, in the early 90s, a Medusa shield appeared in a private collection in Milan, smaller than the one in the Uffizi, but otherwise identical to the work of Caravaggio:

Studies have confirmed not only that this work belongs to the brush of Caravaggio, but also that it was she who was the first version of Medusa, which the artist himself subsequently repeated for a gift to the Grand Duke.

Medusa Gorgon. 1598-1599. Uffizi Gallery. Florence.

A few words about the author of the painting. Life of Michelangelo Caravaggio 1571-1610. She was full of adventures. He loved very much gambling and often got into fights. For which he was persecuted. In painting, he acted as a bold innovator. His art was democratic and realistic.

The heroes of Caravaggio are street vendors, musicians, simple-minded dandies, people from the street. These bright characters, flooded with bright light, are brought close to the viewer, depicted with emphasized monumentality and plastic tangibility.

Caravaggio's devotion to realism sometimes went very far. Such an extreme case is the story of the creation of the canvas "The Resurrection of Lazarus." As we know from the Bible, this happened on the third day after the burial.

To achieve reliability, Caravaggio ordered two hired workers to dig up a recently buried body and hold it while he paints. Unable to withstand the terrible smell, the workers threw the corpse and wanted to run away. But Caravaggio, threatening them with a knife, forced them to continue holding the corpse until he finished drawing .

ABOUT THE PICTURE

Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte ordered the painting to the artist, intending to present it as a gift (original shield) to Ferdinand, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Legends of the Gorgons.

Gorgons, in Greek mythology female monsters. Homer in the Iliad tells that the head of the Gorgon is on the auspices of Zeus, and in the Odyssey the Gorgons are presented as monsters underworld Aida.

Both in Homer and in Euripides, according to whose story the Gorgon was born of the earth and killed by the goddess Athena, we are talking about one Gorgon; meanwhile, Hesiod has three of them, living across the ocean in the west.

Later writers (Herodotus and others) refer to the stay of the Gorgons in Libya and adjacent African lands.

Gorgons are represented as winged creatures with a disproportionately large head, protruding tongue, bared teeth, and often with snakes on their heads or torsos.

Of these, Medusa, who is mostly called simply the Gorgon, was the most terrible. She alone was mortal, which is why Perseus could cut off her head.

According to the version, she was a girl with beautiful hair and wanted to compete with Athena in beauty. And she won this impromptu duel, since it was she who was preferred by the god Poseidon. Poseidon took possession of her in the temple of Athena, where Medusa rushed in search of protection. The vengeful Athena not only did not help her, but also turned her hair into hydras.Poseidon seduced Medusa.From her blood, impregnated by Poseidon (before the deadly blow of Perseus), was born winged horse Pegasus.

Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini Head of Medusa Gorgon

Medusa's head petrified everyone who looked at it or touched it.

The blood that flowed from the left side of the head brought death, and from the right side it revived people.

art for a long time depicted her in a disgusting form, but later, after Pindar, in whom she is represented beautiful, artists began to depict her beautiful, although inspiring horror, usually with wings above her temples and snakes in her hair.

Outwardly, a terrible monster, depicted by artists in late medieval and during the Renaissance, gradually gave way to images of a terrible expression of a beautiful face.

Many artists and sculptors have depicted Medusa in their paintings and sculptures. But best job believed to be the Medusa of Caravaggio.

"Perseus with the Head of the Gorgon" by Benvenuto Cellini 1571-1610

Rubens. Head of Medusa Gorgon. 1617-1618.

According to the rationalistic interpretation, she was the daughter of Fork and reigned over the people at the lake of Trinodides, led the Libyans to war, But was treacherously killed at night.

The Carthaginian writer Proclus calls her a woman from the Libyan desert. According to another interpretation, she was a hetero, fell in love with Perseus and spent her youth and fortune.

There are many legends about the Gorgon Medusa. In Slavic legends, she turned into a maiden with hair in the form of snakes, the maiden Gorgonia. Also in the Slavic apocrypha, the Gorgonian beast, protecting paradise from people after the fall.

In the novel "Alexandria" Alexander the Great takes possession of his head. This explains his numerous victories.

The head of the Gorgon Medusa as an emblem. For example, the island of Sicily is traditionally considered the place where the Gorgons lived and Medusa was killed. Her image still adorns the flag of this region.

Which image of the Gorgon did you like more than Rubens or Caravaggio?

For me, going to the museum took place if I was lucky enough to discover something new. It may be a well-known item from reproductions, which actually looks completely different. Or maybe a work that only here and now attracted attention and changed your idea of an artist.
The Uffizi is not one of my favorite museums. It is difficult to communicate with things in it, there are always crowds of people in it. You go to this museum as if you were going to work, and you come out terribly tired. You can't take pictures. You can understand the latter - if tourists are allowed to take pictures of their loved ones against the backdrop of works, then it will be completely terrible. But exhibitions in the Uffizi know how to do. And at exhibitions, things are revealed better than in the exposition.
The discovery of this year in the Uffizi was Caravaggio's Medusa. Never seen her live before. The anniversary exhibition began with it (Caravaggio died 400 years ago), where the works of the Florentine caravaggists were presented. "Medusa" was exhibited in separate room. She did not hang, but lay, since her frightening face adorns a real shield made for Ferdinand, Grand Duke of Tuscany:

And then, at the exhibition, scenes with other severed heads picked up the theme of Medusa: Holofernes, Goliath, John the Baptist, saints. Fortunately, the sea of blood was slightly diluted with feasts and traditional religious stories performed by caravagists.

The picture of Caravaggio produces such a strong effect, since the master depicts the moment when the head has just flown away from the body. Blood is gushing, snakes are moving, it seems that the death cry is still heard.

The transmission of a particular moment was also of interest to Lorenzo Bernini, who carved the head of Medusa in marble. I examined this work every other day in Rome, in the Capitoline Museums:

Bernini's Medusa is still alive, but seems to have a premonition of her terrible fate. The forehead is furrowed, the lips are half open. Like Caravaggio, we see beautiful woman, whose face is distorted by suffering.

It is very likely that the model for Medusa was the sculptor's beloved, Constance Buonarelli, whose portrait is in the Florentine Bargello:

http://www.wga.hu/art/b/bernini/gianlore/sculptur/1630/bonarell.jpg

In the hall next to Bernini's Medusa is the famous Capitoline she-wolf. And this Etruscan neighborhood involuntarily brought to mind the most sympathetic image of Medusa from my student years, which was the antefix of the temple in Veii, and now lives in the Roman Villa Giulia:

First choice found famous work Caravaggio

IN Lately great Italian artist several paintings have been attributed with more or less skepticism from art historians. However, none of these finds can be compared in their significance with the attribution by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio of another version of the famous Medusa, which sheds light on early period creativity of the master and the method of his work.

This well-known image, painted on canvas stretched over a shield, is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The plot for him Caravaggio took from Ovid's Metamorphoses. The hero of the Greek epic Perseus cut off the head of the Gorgon Medusa, looking at her reflection in a copper shield given to him by the goddess Athena, so as not to turn to stone from her terrible look. Caravaggio depicted on canvas the severed head of Medusa at the time of death: her eyes and mouth are open in horror, and blood is gushing from her neck.

This story was often repeated in Italian painting both before and after Caravaggio. It is known that Leonardo da Vinci worked on a painting inspired by the same myth, but it remained unfinished and was subsequently lost. It is possible that Caravaggio created his Medusa in silent rivalry with Leonardo, trying to perfect what the master failed to achieve.

Scientific research using X-rays and infrared rays over the past decades has allowed scientists to penetrate the secrets of many works of art. Explorations of Medusa from the Uffizi Gallery, however, did not bring any special discoveries.

Under the layer of painting, unlike other works of Caravaggio, no preparatory drawings were found, and this was surprising. It seemed impossible that the artist had immediately painted the image on the convex surface of the shield, making only minimal corrections.

There was another mystery as well. The Genoese poet Gaspare Murtola, who visited Rome in 1600, in one of his poems describes Caravaggio's Medusa, which he could see in his workshop. However, at that time the shield presented to the Grand Duke Ferdinando was already in Florence. Later, in 1605, an inventory of the artist's belongings was made, among which was a shield, which he supposedly kept under a mattress wrapped in a blanket. Is it possible that the poet Murtola saw another, absolutely identical work by Caravaggio?

The mystery gradually began to be solved when, in the early 90s, a Medusa shield appeared in a private collection in Milan, smaller than the one in the Uffizi, but otherwise completely identical to the work of Caravaggio. The discovery immediately attracted the attention of art historians, although at first many doubted the authenticity of this work, preferring to see it as an excellent copy of the famous image. Only Professor Ermanno Zoffili insisted on X-ray analysis of the Medusa, feeling the hand of Caravaggio in it.

The recently released album in Italian and English, edited by him, The First Medusa of Caravaggio, tells about the studies carried out over the past twenty years, which not only confirmed that this work belongs to Caravaggio, but also that it was she who was the first version of the Medusa, which the artist himself subsequently repeated for a gift to the Grand Duke.

X-ray analysis helps to understand how Caravaggio was looking for an image, rethinking, reworking it, achieving the most perfect performance.

First, a preliminary charcoal drawing was made, which the artist corrected a lot and changed its position, adapting to the convex surface of the shield. Initially, the eyes were lower, the mouth was shifted to the left, and the nose reached the position of the current upper lip. Then, on top of the drawing, Caravaggio made the first study with a brush, in which the facial features and dimensions of the image were very different from the first version. However, in the final version, the master returned to the drawing, retaining the dimensions of the study and making Medusa's features more human-like rather than a theatrical mask.

Unlike the Florentine Medusa, this work is signed. Caravaggio put his name in red paint: the signature was made, as it were, with blood from streams gushing from a severed head. This is reminiscent of the artist's signature on the painting "The Decapitation of St. John the Baptist, kept in the Valletta Cathedral on the island of Malta. Headless characters of biblical or ancient history accompanied Caravaggio throughout his life. He gave many of them his own features, and in the first "Medusa" (which art historians call "Medusa Murtola" in memory of the poems of the Genoese poet) the features of the artist are also guessed, which are somewhat softened in the second version, where there is a slight resemblance to Fillide Melandroni, model of Caravaggio.

Denis Mahon believes that, given the importance of the order, Cardinal Del Monte advised Caravaggio to first make the first version, and only then proceed to the main work.

While the "large" Medusa, destined for the Medici collection, went to Florence, the first remained in Rome. Subsequently, she ended up in the collection of the Colonna princes, patrons of Caravaggio, who helped the artist escape from the city after the murder of Ranuccio Tommasoni. This work has been exhibited in Milan, Düsseldorf and Vienna since 2000, and there is no doubt that many art lovers will be able to see it in the future.

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