Michelangelo Caravaggio

Before watching the art history video, I never heard of or have even seen any paintings by Michelangelo Caravaggio. His paintings are truly amazing and his use of chiaroscuro is stunning. I love how he defied the art world and turned something so pure and real, such as the fruit basket, and painted it to show life and death. He also depicts religious scenes in a surreal way. In the painting of "The Calling of Saint Matthew," he is able to capture an extremely powerful scene in the bible and paint it using light and dark to elicit such strong emotions. I love the hand pointing in the darkness to Matthew. Although you cannot really see Jesus, his pointing hand shows just how powerful Jesus was. The use of light to show the presence of Jesus in this darkroom also highlights Jesus' power and pureness.