A Dark Ecstasy: Caravaggio and The Inverted Baroque Image

Barber, Stephen Brock

Savannah, Georgia: Savannah College of Art and Design

2017-03

Thesis (M.F.A.) -- Animation

Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Animation

Bibliography: pages 49-50

"The beginning of the 17th century saw the arrival of Baroque painting, a style which used naturalism and illusionistic techniques to create imagery that was unprecedented in its lifelike qualities. The Catholic Counter Reformation movement adopted and employed this style as a polemical tool, using it to suggest that they quite literally had access to heaven within their cathedrals. Michaelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is the best remembered of these painters and, though he employs all the techniques of the Baroque movement, a closer analysis of his style reveals that he in fact implemented these techniques in a unique and often contrary manner to that of his contemporaries. This thesis analyzes the elements of Caravaggio’s ‘inverted Baroque image’ and argues that the theological implications therein serve to combat the Counter Reformation in which Caravaggio was himself situated. Using this conclusion, this thesis explores modern day examples of Caravaggio’s techniques being employed both in animation and live action. Finally, this thesis discusses how the reproduction of Caravaggio’s inverted Baroque style using specific fabrication and lighting techniques can serve similar thematic ends in a stop-motion animation production."

Keywords: Caravaggio, baroque, chiaroscuro, tenebrism, illusionism, animation, stop-motion

CHAIR: Silva, Jose Luis

Crossley, James

Asquith, Nathan

English

Animation

Text

PDF : 50 pages, color illustrations

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