Two Famous Italian Painters

Early Caravaggio paintings were paintings of flowers and fruits, including Boy Peeling a Fruit, also known to be the earliest of Caravaggio paintings, Boy with a Basket of Fruit and Young Sick Bacchus. They demonstrated physical particularity, an aspect of Caravaggio realism, for which he became famous for.

The Fortune Teller was the first of Caravaggio paintings to feature more than one figure. It was painted by an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily whose full name was Michelangelo Merisi o Amerighi da Caravaggio. It carried a theme that was relatively new in Rome, that of a 16 year old Sicilian artist, who went by the name Mario Minniti, being cheated by a Gypsy girl. This theme became immensely influential in the coming century as well as the next.

Considered to be the first true Caravaggio masterpiece, The Cardsharps was among the more psychologically complex Caravaggio paintings. It featured a boy falling victim to card cheats. The following Caravaggio paintings, i.e., The Musicians, The Lute Player, a tipsy Bacchus and Boy Bitten by a Lizard, became the center of dispute among scholars and biographers mainly because of their homoerotic ambiance.

Returning to realism, Caravaggio paintings centered on religious themes that showed an emergence of remarkable spirituality. Penitent Magdalene, Saint Catherine, Martha and Mary Magdalene, Judith Beheading Holofernes, Sacrifice of Isaac, Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy and Rest on the Flight into Egypt are among these religious paintings.

Raphael paintings celebrated perfection and grace with serene and harmonious qualities. Raphael Sanzio was an Italian High Renaissance painter and architect. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he formed the traditional trinity of great masters of the period.

Raphael’s early years in Umbria, a 4 year period absorbing Florence’s artistic traditions and his last hectic and triumphant 12 years in Rome consisted the 3 phases and 3 styles into which Raphael paintings naturally fall into.

A brilliant self portrait drawing showing Raphael’s precocious talent was one of the early Raphael paintings. With the use of an oil varnish medium, thick paint was applied in shadows and darker garments while thin paint was applied on the flesh areas. This was the underlying technique used in this self-portrait drawing.

Among Raphael paintings, the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino has the distinction of being the first documented work. Large works, some in fresco, comprised the Raphael paintings of the following years. They were actually painted works for other churches, among which are the Mond Crucifixion, the Brera Wedding of the Virgin and Oddi Altarpiece.

Small and exquisite cabinet Raphael paintings during the period included the Three Graces and St. Michael. There was also the beginning of Madonna and portrait paintings among Raphael paintings in the same period.

Want to find out more about Caravaggio Paintings from Italy, then visit Darren Hartley’s site on how to choose the best Raphael Paintings from Italy for your needs.