I feel really lucky that I was in Amsterdam in time to experience this wonderful put together exhibition of Rembrandt-Caravaggio works in the Van Gogh Museum.
The Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn and Italian Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio never actually met. Rembrandt was only four years old when Caravaggio died. Nevertheless, there are many similarities between their works and Rembrandt is therefore called “Caravaggio of the North”. They were both geniuses, famous for using strong contrasts between light and shadow in dramatic compositions. Their themes were often the same, stories from the Bible or mythology. They have been compared before, but apparently it’s the first time their works have been put side by side.
The canvases were huge, the colours amazing, no pictures of the works can give the same experience as standing face to face with the physical paintings. Even though the works on display were produced four-five hundred years ago, I felt the effect of the emotions and themes they portrayed. Classic themes as valid today as back then. I was truly impressed by it all.
Paintings don’t translate well when they are shrunken and flattened. Sounds like a great show. I have seen some examples of their work (was it at the National Gallery or the Met?), but I do remember the quality of surface and the milkiness of skin. It really is awesome (in the old meaning, as in I-cannot-speak-for-their-beauty).
You are so right! The surfaces on many of the paintings were like super high-resulotion photos, very clear and detailed, “more real than reality”. The surfaces of the material of the clothes and the pewter were especially impressive. It was a very well put together show!