Caravaggio, The Conversion of St. Paul (or The Conversion of Saul)

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Caravaggio, The Conversion of St. Paul (or The Conversion of Saul)발음듣기

[Male Narrator] We're in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in Rome and we're looking at one of the most famous paintings by Caravaggio.발음듣기

This is The Conversion of Saul.발음듣기

[Female Narrator] And this is one of two paintings that Caravaggio painted here in the chapel called the Cerasi Chapel, named for the Cerasi family and, in fact, Tiberio Cerasi is buried here in this chapel.발음듣기

[Male Narrator] The painting itself shows an important story, it shows Saul, who's job it was to persecute Christians, and he was on the road to Damascus when he was blinded by light and he heard a voice.발음듣기

[Female Narrator] And that voice, the voice of Christ said to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?발음듣기

And, Saul was blinded for three days.발음듣기

[Male Narrator] Now, that's important because Christ had been in his tomb for three days before he was resurrected and Jonah, in the Old Testament remained in the fish, which is often called a whale for three days.발음듣기

[Female Narrator] So, there is this Old Testament tradition that this is going back to of three days in the darkness before being saved by the divine.발음듣기

[Male Narrator] And, it puts Saul, who's name becomes Paul, in this tradition that comes out of the Old Testament.발음듣기

[Female Narrator] So, here, we only see that divine supernatural force as light flooding down on Saul.발음듣기

He's fallen off of his horse.발음듣기

[Male Narrator] Caravaggio has stripped out everything that's not essential.발음듣기

He's created monumental figures that fill the frame of the canvas.발음듣기

He's pushed them forward and he's placed them against this deep, dark background so, when elements are illuminated, they stand out against that background.발음듣기

[Female Narrator] Saul's face is the only face here that's illuminated.발음듣기

[Male Narrator] While the groom doesn't even seem to notice what's going on.발음듣기

[Female Narrator] And that's what makes it all the more personal, that it's only Saul that hears God's voice.발음듣기

So, this darkness that this is set in, no architecture no landscape, this tenebrous, this dark style perhaps deriving from the art of Leonardo da Vinci.발음듣기

But here taken so far by Caravaggio and that darkness eliminating everything else that could distract us from this incredibly powerful moment.발음듣기

[Male Narrator] It's interesting to think about why this is happening at this particular moment at the turn of the 17th century.발음듣기

[Female Narrator] The naturalism we see here, the way that we're getting the rear end of the horse the dirt on the ground.발음듣기

The figure of the groom who's taking care of the horse, looks like a man that Caravaggio probably asked to model for him that he met in Rome.발음듣기

And that naturalism is part of this interest in legibility, in clarity in art that comes out of the Counter-Reformation.발음듣기

[Male Narrator] And, specifically, out of the Council of Trent.발음듣기

The idea was that painting could be didactic.발음듣기

One of the questions that Luther and other Protestants raised was whether or not.발음듣기

It was alright to have paintings and the Council of Trent spoke to that directly and said yes, paintings had important didactic value within a religious context.발음듣기

[Female Narrator] And, it's really interesting to compare this to the first version of this painting which was apparently rejected by the patron where we see a narrative.발음듣기

Here, although we do have a sense of a caught moment in time, what we have is a condensation, a distilling of this moment of personal conversion that was very popular among Baroque artists.발음듣기

[Male Narrator] If we were looking at a Renaissance painting, it would be a more public moment.발음듣기

Figures would exist in a more rational space.발음듣기

But, here, it almost seems as if we have a privileged, private view.발음듣기

The chapel itself is a narrow space.발음듣기

[Female Narrator] And the space of the painting is confining, the figures take up side to side top to bottom, with very little room to spare and Caravaggio's definitely thinking about our view here as we stand in this chapel and look obliquely across and up at the painting.발음듣기

Saul seems to fall out toward us.발음듣기

[Male Narrator] In the Renaissance, the idea was to create a sense of harmony, a sense of balance.발음듣기

Here, all of that is upended.발음듣기

This is precarious, it seems fleeting.발음듣기

The center of gravity is high, rather than low.발음듣기

The largest and most massive part of this painting is the body of the horse and it's at the top.발음듣기

[Female Narrator] And, beneath him, Saul seems very vulnerable, the horse's hoof is lifted up Saul's helmet has fallen off of his head.발음듣기

There is this sense of the fragility of a human being confronted with the power of the divine.발음듣기

[Male Narrator] Saul is so close to us and seems so real he lies on the bare earth.발음듣기

[Female Narrator] And, his knees are up his legs are spread, his arms are spread.발음듣기

[Male Narrator] His body is actually a triangle but it's upended and whereas the Renaissance was concerned often with parameatal compositions with creating a stable pyramid.발음듣기

This is turning that pyramid up on it's point.발음듣기

[Female Narrator] And, there's so much foreshortening here, not only is the body of Saul foreshortened his sword is foreshortened, the horse is foreshortened.발음듣기

And, so, everything is so close to us.발음듣기

In the Renaissance, we often saw a distance between the world of human beings and realm of the divine.발음듣기

[Male Narrator] But, here Saul is present is our world.발음듣기

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