PROFANED BODIES, MUTILATED BODIES. BETWEEN BERNAT MARTORELL (1390-1452) AND CARAVAGGIO (1571-1610): JOHN BAPTIST IN SCENE
Name: MATHEUS CORASSA DA SILVA
Publication date: 05/04/2018
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ALMERINDA DA SILVA LOPES | Internal Examiner * |
| ANGELA MARIA GRANDO BEZERRA | Internal Examiner * |
Summary: Bernat Martorell (1390-1452) and Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) were exponents of the Gothic and Baroque paintings, respectively. They produced, in the bosom of the Christianity, works physically and symbolically intense, marked by naturalistic tendencies and by a peculiar bodies approach. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the manifestations and aesthetic representations of the body of St. John the Baptist (c. AD 32), a common character to the art of both, on three specific paintings: 1) the Altarpiece of St. John the Baptist (c. 1425-1430), by Martorell; 2) St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness (c. 1604) and 3) The decapitation of St. John the Baptist (1608), by Caravaggio. To that end, we will use the levels of iconographic interpretation proposed by Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968), as well as the reflections of Georges Didi-Huberman (1953- ) on the anachronism of images, with a view to enriching the debate about the body in art. We will examine the innumerable
and sometimes contrasting historical, philosophical and artistic considerations about the theme, to understand the protagonism of the body in these works and in the devotion to the saint. We will also make an immersion into trajectories of the two artists, highlighting their historical and cultural backgrounds, their influences, their professional stages, the tensions
experienced and the way they made the body a central element in their creative processes. Our central hypothesis lies in the perception that medieval conceptions of the body manifest themselves on these paintings, projected beyond their chronological temporality and echoed on notions of body as a battleground and tragic body, contemporary elaborations with which we dialogue.
Keywords: Bernat Martorell Caravaggio Art history St. John the Baptist Body.
