Great Art Cities: Rome - Caravaggio, Bernini and Pozzo

Rome is the birthplace of Baroque,

the highly ornate and elaborate style
of architecture, art, and design

that flourished in Europe

in the 17th and first half
of the 18th century.

Unlike the Renaissance,

which was all about control
and perfect balance,

the era was famous for its dramatic flair
and sense of movement.

The Baroque style was also
the first global art form.

It spread from Rome
throughout Europe and to Asia.

The upside of the Roman Catholic Church's
immense wealth

has been its support
of hundreds of artists,

including the three
we are looking at in this video:

Michelangelo, Marisi de Caravaggio
Andrea Pozzo and Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

In this episode, Great Cities Explained
goes outside the galleries and museums,

and inside three Baroque churches

that still house their work today
and cost nothing to visit.

Caravaggio, Bernini and Pozzo
were born into a world

that had been shaken
by the Protestant Reformation,

which had significantly weakened

the CatholicChurch's influence
across Europe.

The Protestant Reformation began in 1517

when Martin Luther challenged
the Catholic church with his 95 thesis,

criticizing indulgences
and clerical corruption.

Rooted in disputes
over salvation and scripture,

it spread across Europe
via the printing press

and through other reformers.

The movement fractured Christianity,

eventually sparking religious wars

and reshaping Europe's religious
and political landscape.

One of the weapons the Catholic Church
used in the fight against protestantism

was art.

It's one thing for the church
to tell priests

what to teach and to write
new laws and new decrees,

but they also had
to transmit this information

to the everyday person on the street.

And to do that they put these ideas
in the place that people know best,

where they go to celebrate their faith
- on the walls of the churches.

The church's counter-reformation movement

demanded that art be used as a tool
to inspire faith, devotion,

and more importantly
to emotionally engage.

The Church would use powerful imagery
to reinforce Catholic Doctrine,

inspire faith, and counteract
the spread of Protestantism.

It decreed that art should be clear,
direct, emotional, and didactic,

conveying religious messages in a way

that was accessible to all,
including the illiterate

Baroque art was a direct result
of this need for works

that were characterized
by emotional intensity,

religious ecstasy, suffering, and triumph.

And Rome, the spiritual and cultural
capital of the Christian world,

became the epicentre of Baroque art,
architecture, and culture,

during the 17th century.

Many artists, as you know, are troubled,
difficult and sometimes problematic.

Caravaggio was someone who certainly
liked the seedy underbelly of life,

and is sometimes referred to
as "Baroque's bad boy",

in itself a problematic term.

He had over 40 police records,
mostly for violent activities,

and he was eventually condemned to death
after killing a man,

necessitating spending
most of his life as a fugitive.

This might make him
a terrible human being,

but in a period of complete uncertainty
about the sacraments,

about what part Saints played,

about what we believe and why,

it also made him the perfect artist
to express the incredible tension

that was so prevalent
in this period of the post-reformation.

He was also the best qualified artist
to portray the calling of a sinner.

By the late 1590s Caravaggio
was working in Rome,

trying to make a name for himself
in the competitive art scene.

Already known for his rebellious nature,
and rough temperament,

which often clashed
with his professional ambitions,

Caravaggio was struggling
to get commissions.

Then in 1599,
after another artist dropped out,

he was asked to create two scenes
from the life of St Matthew

for the Conterelli chapel

in the Baroque Church
of San Luigi de Francesi,

the National Church of France in Rome.

It is these paintings
more than any others,

that establish Caravaggio.

They marked the moment when the mannerist
conventions of the late 16th century:

rational, intellectual,
perhaps a little artificial,

give way to the Baroque.

The two huge paintings were to stand
either side of a statue of St Matthew

by Flemish artist Jakob Coebert,

but the clients rejected
the finished statue

and Caravaggio was asked
to create a third painting,

as a centrepiece above the altar,

showing St Matthew writing the Gospel
under the guidance of an angel.

The first painting in the trio
is the Calling of St Matthew,

which depicts the moment in the Bible
when Christ calls Matthew,

a tax collector, to follow him.

The scene is set
in a dimly lit Roman tavern,

the sort of dingy place Caravaggio
and his friends hung out in,

with figures dressed in the same type
of 17th century contemporary clothing

that the artist and his friends war.

In fact, Caravaggio often included
his friends in his paintings.

Here is the artist Mario Minitti,
who appears in several of his works

and like Caravaggio was part
of the seedy underbelly of Roman life.

But why does Caravaggio
show them in modern clothing?

It would be like walking
into a church today

and seeing a painting
with Christ contemporaries

in t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers.

Later on, Caravaggio will include
17th century armour

in another illustration
of the Gospel story.

It is a deliberate choice
to bridge the gap

between the biblical story
and the viewer's reality.

This anachronism, to our eyes

was totally understandable
to a 17th century audience,

and in line
with counter-reformation thinking.

It told the viewer
that the possibility of redemption

was as relevant in their present
as it was in Biblical times.

Christ and Peter in the painting, however,

are both barefoot and dressed
in the more familiar robes

we know from Biblical paintings,

to help distinguish
between the divine and the secular.

Christ gestures towards Matthew

who sits at a table counting coins
with other tax collectors.

The moment captures Matthew's surprise
and his inner conflict

as he realizes he is being chosen.

Structural composition serves
as the backbone of a painting

and plays a crucial role
in guiding the viewer's experience,

conveying meaning
and creating aesthetic harmony.

With so much going on
in all three paintings

the structure and the symmetry
is important.

This one is almost square.

And then within it, there are
a series of squares and rectangles,

giving it coherence.

It also has a series of diagonals
starting from the light behind Christ,

another diagonal follows
the young boy's sword,

another St Peter's leg,

and yet another the leg angle
of the boy on the left.

Matthew's call is shown through
the extreme sense of light and shadow

we know from Caravaggio's
signature use of chiaroscuro,

something I have discussed
in my other video on Caravaggio.

A beam of light comes
from behind the head of Christ

who stands to the right
partially obscured behind St Peter,

and the light illuminates the group

- but not through the window
that is visible,

but from an unseen supernatural source,

underscoring the idea of redemption

that even a sinner like a tax collector
in a den of sin,

can be transformed
into something extraordinary.

A large part of the painting
is blank space, or rather light.

And as I've discussed before,

light is used in religious art
as a metaphor for the presence of God,

divine intervention or,
in this case spiritual awakening.

The light hits all of the men
around the table

but a choice is being made
by each individual

whether or not to look into the light.

These two men are more engrossed
in material concerns

- counting coins -

and their indifference to Christ,
or their "spiritual blindness"

is there as a contrast
to Matthew's moment of recognition.

There is a lot less certainty than we see
in many other treatments of the theme.

Matthew himself is not sure
who is being called,

as indicated
by both his quizzical expression

and the way he points to himself
as if to ask: "Is it me?"

The rather undecided way
Christ points towards Matthew

adds to this ambiguity,

and as we see from this x-ray,

it was something Caravaggio
experimented with.

The hands of Christ, Peter, and Matthew
are strikingly similar.

Christ's hand pointing
towards Matthew is the highest,

followed by Peter's,
which emphasises Christ's selection,

and finally Matthew's.

All three share the same gesture,
with subtle variations,

adding to the symmetry of the composition.

no coincidence that Christ's gesture echoes the hand of Adam in Michelangelo's "Creation
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of Adam" in the Sistine chapel, perhaps emphasising Christ's Divine Mission, while subtly connecting
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the act of calling Matthew, to the Act of Creation itself. Suggesting that Christ is giving Matthew a
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"new life" a spiritual one. Matthew and his friends clothing is made from Rich Fabrics: silks, velvets,
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and brocades - the the most beautiful clothes of the 17th century, and along with the coins,
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these luxuries all indicate that should Matthew accept Christ calling, there is a lot to be given up.
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The martyrdom on the facing wall of the chapel, tells us that it cost him everything.
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The inspiration of St Matthew is the centrepiece, and represents the moment of Matthew's inspiration to
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write the Gospel. The first thing to notice is the contrast between the two figures. The angel
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comes down in a spiral and looks like a beam of light, while Matthew is projecting heat and warmth,
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as if he is on fire with inspiration delivered from Heaven. This was not the first version. Caravaggio
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originally created this image for the chapel which was rejected by the church, because it
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showed St Matthew as an uneducated, unkempt, peasant with dirty feet. The painting was destroyed in the
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Second World War, but this is an original photo, which is sometimes colorised. Caravaggio's inclusion
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of dirty feet into a sacred context was radical, raw, and authentic - a move away from the idealised
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religious imagery, and a message that Holiness and Divinity could be found in the lowliest and most
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unexpected places. He always used life models, and often used poor or workingclass people,
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Beggars. Street-Walkers, criminals, and manual labourers, again emphasising realism and
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the divine within the ordinary. The use of lower class, less than perfect models to portray holy
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figures, is sometimes interpreted as blasphemous by modern writers, but this is not true. While there
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were critics of Caravaggio at the time, he was simply following counter-reformation ideas. By showing
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the physical earthly realities of Life, the dirt and the Clutter, he emphasised the human, humble,
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nature of his subjects, tapping into the church's aims of appealing directly to the masses. In this
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second version Caravaggio painted, instead of being fully controlled by the angel - as he appears in the
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first version, it shows Matthew kneeling, with a strong weathered appearance. Leaning forward as if
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deeply immersed in the act of writing. The angel above him delicately encourages or inspires, and
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counts on his hands how many verses Matthew has completed - rather than dictates. The interaction
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between the angel and Matthew, deliberately fluid, emphasises that this is a collaborative process
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of divine inspiration, rather than one of full control of an illiterate peasant. Caravaggio
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connects the two figures visually: Matthew's bent right arm matches the Angel's left, and the curve
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of his left arm matches the Angel's right, their hands are close together, their shoulders are
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parallel. Both lean forward onto the right hand, both raise their left leg, and both stretch out
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their right leg. Unlike in the previous version of this episode the angel's wings are dark. Hard
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to make out against the background, which gives the work a sense of drama, tension, or foreboding, of what
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is to come. The angel feels strangely grounded and tangible, consistent with Caravaggio's naturalistic
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style. While not identical, there is a visual echo between the positioning of Michelangelo's God, and
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Caravaggio's Angel. Both figures lean toward towards the human counterpart in a gesture of divine
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communication or intervention. Additionally the drapery in both Works flows dynamically,
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adding to the sense of motion and divine energy.
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The martyrdom is the last of the three, and according to tradition,
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the saint was killed on the orders of the king of Ethiopia, while celebrating mass
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at the altar. Caravaggio chooses the moment when the murderer has already stabbed Matthew once,
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and is about to administer the fatal blow. We can see splattered blood from that first wound.
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It is the sort of violence Caravaggio himself was all too familiar with. The artist is never
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really interested in the physical environment in his paintings, and the altar - so important in
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other versions - is almost entirely obscured by the Angel's Cloud. The angel, with a head of thick brown
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curls and a muscular adolescent body, is similar to that in "The Inspiration", and almost certainly was
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the same model. He seems to have been inspired by this painting by Titian. The martyrs are in identical -
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but reversed - positions, the Assassin looms over the saint - with one hand gripping his arm, and the
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other raised with a weapon. The nearby companion recoils in panic and flees, almost a mirror image.
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And the angels reach out to the Saint with a palm leaf, the symbol of martyrdom. Caravaggio had never
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painted such a large canvas, nor one with so many figures, and it seems to have caused him
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considerable difficulty. X-rays reveal two separate attempts at the composition. Originally it was a
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much more crowded painting, with some architectural features, and many more characters. By taking away
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these elements and removing the architecture, Caravaggio removes any distractions from the
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main story. Matthew's Martyrdom. Each figure in the painting, many in contemporary clothing,