ANGES ET BOURREAUX - CARAVAGE

CYCLE DE ST MATHIEU - COLLECTION PALETTES

of JAUBERT Alain

FRANCE, 1998, 00:31:00

Production : MUSEE DU LOUVRE, PALETTE PRODUCTIONS, LA SEPT-ARTE, SAADOUN Paul, PAINI Dominique, REUNION DES MUSEES NATIONAUX, MUSEE D'ORSAY
Collection : Musée du Louvre
Genre : Documentary
Keyword : History of art, Painting, Religion

Summary :
Choosing key-works in the imaginary of the Western culture, the series called “Palettes” tells in each episode the story of a different painting. In a word, it tells the genealogy of the painting. For a painting has its ancestors and its descendants. A double technical and philosophical knowledge, fed on by a long tradition, gave birth to the painting. And the painting itself gave birth, year after year, to a multitude of other images…
Assuming the idea that the deep meaning of a painting is conveyed by the choice of colours and themes, we dissect the canvas from its most visible composition to its deepest significance

« Angels and executioners », cycle on Saint Matthew by Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio - 1600 - church of San Luigi dei Francesi (Roma).Caravaggio invented a new way of "“banishing" darkness. That surprised his contemporaries before being imitated by people from Spain to the Netherlands.He was asked to paint three stages of the life of the evangelist, Saint Matthew: the Calling, the Inspiration and the Martyrdom. Caravaggio worked on these paintings in a very different way. Movements, colours, lighting… everything creates a sort of theatrical staging that also considers the architecture of the place and the approach of the audience.

to print