Caravaggio has long been regarded as a revolutionary painter by virtue of his artistic language, which has aroused interest, involvement and authentic passion in patrons, collectors, writers and simple art lovers in various periods. The purpose of these two volumes is to shed light on his pictorial methods through technical research on the twenty-two unquestionably autograph works in Rome.
On the basis of the findings of first-hand investigation of the paintings, the first volume addresses a number of crucial themes with studies by the most authoritative scholars in the sector that examine the master’s artistic trajectory, the complex art-critical interpretations, the state of preservation and the latest investigative techniques. The result is an unprecedented image of the painter, midway between tradition and innovation, and a possible answer to the questions about his success, which has continued through the centuries and the most varied schools of art and criticism.
Contents
Prefaces
Dario Franceschini
Daniela Porro
Maurizio Calvesi
Mina Gregori
Editors’ Note
Introductory Notes on Caravaggio’s Technique of Execution
Rossella Vodret
Caravaggio’s Painting Technique. A Technical Art History
Marco Cardinali
Caravaggio’s Painting Technique. Compositional Processes and Material Structures
Maria Beatrice De Ruggieri
Camera Obscura or ‘Illuminated Stage Sets’? Light, Drawing and Composition in the Painting of Caravaggio
Pietro Roccasecca
Hidden in the Shadows: Caravaggio’s Drawing and the Myth of the Camera Obscura
Filippo Camerota
The Studio of Lorenzo Carli: Clarifications, Reflections and a Note on the Young Caravaggio
Giorgio Leone
Observations on Iconographic and Compositional Changes in the Contarelli ‘Laterals’
Alessandro Zuccari
COMPARATIVE PLATES
The Twenty-Two Paintings, Diagrams of Incisions, IR Reflectograms and X-Radiographs
A Study on the Artistic Materials, Sources and Use in Caravaggio’s Paintings: the Conservation History of the Twenty-Two Merisi’s Masterpieces in Rome
Giulia Silvia Ghia
Micro-Destructive Investigations
Matteo Positano, Irene Aliatis, Claudia Conti
The X-ray Examination and Conservation Treatment Carried out by the ICR on Caravaggio’s Paintings in San Luigi dei Francesi. Comparison of Texts and Unpublished Archival Documents
Anna Maria Marcone (†), Claudio Seccaroni
Memories of a (then) Young Restorer
Carlo Giantomassi
Caravaggio as Revealed by Study of the ISCR Cross-Sections: the Paintings of the Contarelli Chapel and the Two Versions of 'St Francis in Meditation'
Fabio Talarico, Giancarlo Sidoti, Giuseppina Vigliano
Investigation of Two Versions of Caravaggio’s 'St Francis in Meditation' by Scanning Macro X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry
Matthias Alfeld, Koen Janssens, Geert Van der Snickt, Marco Cardinali, Maria Beatrice De Ruggieri, Matteo Positano
Comparison of Instruments and Methods for XRF Analysis on Caravaggio’s Paintings
Stefano Ridolfi
ATLAS OF ANALYSIS
Cross-sections and XRF Analysis
edited by Marco Cardinali, Maria Beatrice De Ruggieri, Matteo Positano, Fabio Talarico
Notes on the Terminology Used in the Atlas
Fabio Talarico
Bibliography