Sunday, December 25, 2016

Holy Family in the Caravaggio Manner

Bartolomeo Cavarozzi
Holy Family
ca. 1617-25
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1586-1625) was an Italian painter who worked in Spain but died in Rome. He belonged to the generation that immediately followed Caravaggio, whose earthiness and rich shadows overwhelmed the styles of many European painters at the opening of the 17th century. The spiritual uneasiness inherited from Caravaggio is present as an undercurrent in Cavarozzi's painting above, but his characters share a warmer intimacy than any Caravaggio was able to  or wanted to  depict.