Rebuilding The Renaissance

Latest Episodes:

Episode 261 - Caravaggio's "St. John the Baptist" and the "Taking of Christ" Jan 17, 2024

Show notes

After the "Supper at Emmaus," Caravaggio produced two more paintings for the Mattei brothers. The first was the unorthodox "St. John the Baptist" that today is in the Capitoline Museums in Rome and is a rather unabashed representation of a naked youth embracing a ram and lacking any conventional imagery. The second painting is the dramatic "Taking of Christ," which was thought lost for centuries before being rediscovered in 1990 in the dining hall of the house of Jesuit fathers in Dublin, Ireland.

Episode 260 - Caravaggio's "Supper at Emmaus" Jan 10, 2024

Show notes

Located in the National Gallery in London, Caravaggio's "Supper at Emmaus" was painted in 1601 for the influential Cardinal Girolamo Mattei. The painting depicts the episode from the Gospel of Luke where two apostles dine with a traveler and realize to their astonishment that their companion is the resurrected Christ once he breaks bread.

Episode 259 - Caravaggio's "Conversion of St. Paul" Jan 03, 2024

Show notes

The second painting that Caravaggio produced for the Cerasi Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, Italy, depicts the dramatic conversion of St. Paul on the road to Damascus. While certainly inspired by Raphael's and Michelangelo's earlier interpretations of the same subject, Caravaggio has transformed St. Paul's conversion into a deeply theatrical, spiritual, and intimate event.

Episode 258 - Caravaggio's "Crucifixion of St. Peter" Dec 27, 2023

Show notes

Caravaggio's interpretation of St. Peter's particular martyrdom – crucifixion in an upside-down position – for the Cerasi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, Italy, is a moving example of realism and physicality. Three executioners struggle to lift the burly fisherman who seems to embrace his death.

Episode 257 - Caravaggio's Cerasi Chapel Dec 20, 2023

Show notes

Located in the Augustinian church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, Italy, the Cerasi Chapel contains two paintings by Caravaggio – the "Crucifixion of St. Peter" and the "Conversion of St. Paul." The paintings were commissioned by Monsignor Tiberio Cerasi, who was the treasurer general of Pope Clement VIII, in 1600. Curiously, Cerasi had asked a different painter named Annibale Caracci to paint the altarpiece of the chapel, which is executed in stark contrast to Caravaggio's style.

Episode 256 - Caravaggio's "St. Matthew and the Angel" Dec 13, 2023

Show notes

In 1602, Caravaggio signed his final contract with the Contarelli family to paint an altarpiece for their family chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, Italy. The first painting (now lost) that Caravaggio produced was rejected because it depicted St. Matthew as a rustic and rather simple looking figure. But the second version – which we say in the chapel today – is a triumph of Caravaggio's realistic theatrical style.

Episode 255 - Caravaggio's "Calling of St. Matthew" Dec 06, 2023

Show notes

The "Calling of St. Matthew" was the second of three paintings that Caravaggio executed for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, Italy. It depicts the dramatic moment when Christ called Matthew, the tax collector, to follow him in his mission. Caravaggio transforms a simple moment into a theatrical event set within a contemporary early 17th-century Roman setting.

Episode 254 - Caravaggio's "Martyrdom of St. Matthew" Nov 29, 2023

Show notes

The first of three paintings that Caravaggio painted for the Contarelli Chapel in the official French church of Rome, San Luigi dei Francesi, the "Martyrdom of St. Matthew" was the artist's first large scale painting. It depicts the assassination of the saint and evangelist at high mass in a dramatic fashion that only Caravaggio could invent.

Episode 253 - Caravaggio and the Contarelli Chapel Nov 22, 2023

Show notes

Only July 23, 1599, Caravaggio signed the contract with the heirs of Cardinal Matthieu Cointerel ("Contarelli" in Italian) to produce three paintings for their family chapel in the official French church of Rome called San Luigi dei Francesi. This episode examines the history of the church, chapel and commission surrounding Caravaggio's great paintings.

Episode 252 - Caravaggio's "Rest on the Flight into Egypt," "Penitent Magdalene," and "Judith and Holofernes" Nov 15, 2023

Show notes

This episode addresses three more of Caravaggio's innovative early paintings in Rome, Italy. Each of the paintings treats conventional subjects in unconventional ways, including using well-known prostitutes as models for the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, and introducing unprecedented violence into the Judith subject.

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