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Italian Baroque Era Painter, ca.1571-1610
Italian painter. After an early career as a painter of portraits, still-life and genre scenes he became the most persuasive religious painter of his time. His bold, naturalistic style, which emphasized the common humanity of the apostles and martyrs, flattered the aspirations of the Counter-Reformation Church, while his vivid chiaroscuro enhanced both three-dimensionality and drama, as well as evoking the mystery of the faith. He followed a militantly realist agenda, rejecting both Mannerism and the classicizing naturalism of his main rival, Annibale Carracci. In the first 30 years of the 17th century his naturalistic ambitions and revolutionary artistic procedures attracted a large following from all over Europe.
The Martyrdom of St Matthew
1599-1600 Oil on canvas, width of detail: 90 cm Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome A boy who acts as altar-boy to the old man, whose service has been interrupted, flees screaming to the right. He is one of those expressive studies of emotion which, like the Medusa in Florence, have contributed greatly to Caravaggio's renown. Author: CARAVAGGIO Title: The Martyrdom of St Matthew (detail) , 1551-1600 , Italian Form: painting , religious
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