Birthday!

It’s that special day again, Caravaggio’s birthday. In last year’s birthday post, I asked my readers to weigh in about Caravaggio’s art, went over a brief biography of his life  (and some of the things his biographers and critics said of him), and talked about what the year held for Caravaggio studies.

This year, Caravaggio’s influence in the art historical world is just as strong. There will be several publications about Caravaggio this year: a forthcoming Art Bulletin article by David Stone, a book called Caravaggio: Reflections and Refractions (which includes more than a dozen essays on Caravaggio and the Caravaggisti, edited by Lorenzo Pericolo & David Stone), and Helen Langdon has a forthcoming publication called The Cardsharps published by the Kimbell art museum (which the painting calls home). There is also a Caravaggio-themed exhibition coming to LACMA in November, Bodies and Shadows: Caravaggio and His Legacy, which I am extremely excited about. Bodies and Shadows will have eight Caravaggios and 56 works in total from his followers. It will also be at the Wadsworth in 2013 if you can’t make it to Los Angeles.

I’m excited about what this year has in store for Caravaggio studies!

Feel free to peruse past Caravaggio-themed posts on Caravaggista.com in celebration:

Tags: Caravaggio

Hello dear readers! I am so bad at breaking hiatuses. Obviously, my goal of writing for the site again by mid-August wasn’t fulfilled, but for good reason.  My husband and I have been extremely busy since moving to Newark — settling in, exploring campus, and taking care of our new puppy, Owen, who we’ve had for almost two months.

Owen at 12 weeks. (Obligatory cute puppy picture)

I started my first day of graduate school on August 28, and it was quite the day! On Tuesdays, I’m in class from 11am to 5pm with 15 minute breaks in between. One of my classes is the course I’m the Graduate Assistant for, and the students have their first test tomorrow.(They’ll be fine.)  Being on the other side of courses has given me a completely different perspective on my education and undergraduate education in general. The University seems to truly strive for meaningful education and the professors are involved and concerned about undergraduate education as much, it seems, as they are about graduate education. Speaking of graduate education … this is new. As an undergrad, I was used to harsh deadlines and all-nighters and tests. But life as a graduate student is much more fluid and because of that, Delaware is lots of fun. And I couldn’t ask to be in a better department. The department is very congenial and this is one of the reasons that I love being in Delaware.

I’m not certain when I’ll be able to write an actual post again; I’m wary of setting a deadline for myself. I would like to share a couple projects I’ll be working on this semester. Both of these projects are, admittedly, somewhat daunting, each for their own reasons. One of my projects is a term paper about Moreau’s Orpheus from 1865. I am not certain what angle I’ll be taking, but I know that Orpheus, like John the Baptist and other figures, was a repeated motif for Moreau. And, interestingly, in several Orpheus drawings and paintings, Moreau painted Orpheus with a type of halo. I can’t comment on the halo beyond the fact that I find that fascinating, and I’m in the process of researching why that might be. Specifically, though, my paper’s main focus is this 1865 Orpheus where his decapitated head (finally something I can talk about ) is being carried by a young Thracian girl, who discovered it after it floated down river. Is it singing? Speaking? Why isn’t his head more realistic? Moreau wasn’t incapable of showing gore. I’m rambling to sort out my midnight-hour thoughts. I suppose I’ll find answers as I continue my research.

My second project is a paper on the Cornaro Family group in Bernini’s Cornaro Chapel. The Chapel and specifically the St. Teresa sculpture are not what worries me about the project. What is unnerving is that the topic has been done before, in a way (the question of vision in the chapel and the mens’ relationship to the ecstatic scene) but in another way, has not – a study specific to the men themselves and how they relate to their surroundings and how we relate to them. Whenever I think about this, I keep conceptualizing a triangle of vision that perhaps is even cyclical (even if vision is supposed to stop at Teresa — if it’s supposed to stop at Teresa.)

Berini, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, 1647-52, Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, Italy.

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I’m still alive and thinking about the site. The Facebook and Tumblr are much more active these days.

“See” you soon!

Amy

Tags: Art History, Grad school, Life, Mod Post, UDel