The restoration of Lazarus cost more than £90,000 but the painting itself is thought to be worth at least £10m
12:40am UK, Saturday June 16, 2012
Art experts have restored one of Caravaggio's most famous paintings, the Raising of Lazarus, to its former glory.
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio painted the masterpiece in 1609 and it was one of his last works before he die.
He had lived a tumultuous life - spent partly on the run after possibly unintentionally killing a rival in a tennis match.
The Biblical painting is a vivid example of the artist's dramatic use of lighting in what has become known as his chiarosciuro (clear dark) style.
Experts painstakingly restored the painting over seven months in a workshop in the Superior Central Institute of Restoration in Rome, at a cost of more than £90,000.
The painting itself is thought to be worth at least £10m.
The picture is painted in dark and moody brushstrokes, with striking images of the characters set against a pitch black backdrop.
Wealthy Genoese merchant Giovan Battista de' Lazzari commissioned the work for his chapel in the church of the Crocifieri in Messina on the Italian island of Sicily.
Chief restorer Anna MarconeThe painting has suffered a great deal because of the various restorations but we are delighted with the seven months work that has restored it.
The artist was paid 1,000 scudi - double what he had been paid for previous works.
It took Caravaggio just a few weeks to complete and is noted as being one of his most rushed works.
Legend has it that he based the body of Lazarus on a real corpse that he had exhumed from graveyard in Sicily, where he had fled from Malta after being involved in a brawl with a knight.
He had been living in Malta for three years since arriving in 1606, after he was forced to flee from Rome following a fight at the end of a tennis match in which he fatally stabbed his opponent.
Since arriving in Rome from his native Caravaggio near Milan, the artist's life had been characterised with a catalogue of brawls and sword fights - although he received numerous commissions for his works.
When Caravaggio fled the city following the brawl, Pope Paul V signed a death warrant for him.
Helen Langdon, a noted Caravaggio expert, wrote of the work: "His great Sicilian altarpieces isolate their shadowy, pitifully poor figures in vast areas of darkness; they suggest the desperate fears and frailty of man, and at the same time convey, with a new, yet desolate tenderness, the beauty of humility and of the meek, who shall inherit the earth."
Lazarus was the brother of Martha and Mary.
According to the Gospel of St John, he fell sick and died while Christ was on his way to visit him.
When Christ arrives Lazarus has already been in his tomb for four days.
Despite protests from Martha, Jesus orders his dead friend out of the tomb.
He then appears, to the amazement of onlookers.
In Caravaggio's painting Christ's hand can be seen pointing to Lazarus.
Critics have commented on how the index figure is strikingly similar to the image in Michelangelo's Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel.
Another characteristic of the painting is the figure above the arm of Christ, with his hands folded in prayer and who is said to be a self portrait of Caravaggio.
The painting goes on display for a month in Rome before returning to its "natural home of Messina" and it was unveiled at a packed press conference in the Italian capital.
Experts explained how it had been restored several times during the last four centuries, the first in 1670, just 50 years after Caravaggio painted it and again in 1820 and 1919, with the last clean up taking place in 1951.
Chief restorer Anna Marcone said: "The dark colour of the painting was its first misfortune as over the centuries people tried as hard as they could to lighten it and as a result the work really suffered.
"The work was painted at the end of Caravaggio's life, in a tragic period when he was on the run between Malta and Sicily and he had little time to finish it.
"The painting has suffered a great deal because of the various restorations but we are delighted with the seven months' work that has restored the painting as best as possible to how it originally was."
Caravaggio eventually died in 1610, aged just 39-years-old, in Porto Ercole, north of Rome, and two years ago historians discovered what was believed to be his tomb in a 400-year-old abandoned church.
Theories for his death range from him contracting syphilis, that he died from sunstroke or that he was himself murdered by rivals.
Despite his artistic fame Caravaggio's final resting place was never recorded and he was thought to have been buried in an unmarked common grave.
Source: news.sky.com
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Source: www.iol.co.za
Restored Caravaggio's Lazarus is shown in Rome - BBC News
Caravaggio's Resurrection of Lazarus has gone on display in Rome, after seven months of restoration work.
The painting, also known as The Raising of Lazarus, is believed to have been painted in 1609, one year before the artist's death at the age of 38.
It depicts the story in the Gospel of St John in which Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.
It marks the first time the painting has been restored in 60 years. It will remain in Rome until 15 July.
The painting was housed for centuries in the church of the Crociferi fathers in Messina, Sicily, before it was moved to the city's museum.
It shows the instant that Christ points to the dead Lazarus - who is being held in the arms of those who exhumed him - and brings his friend back to life.
The background of the painting is mostly dark, which art historians say was probably because Caravaggio was in a hurry to complete the commission.
"During this period of his life, Caravaggio was forced to finish his paintings very quickly, and therefore he refined his technique in order to achieve this objective," said restorer Anna Maria Marcone.
"He used local materials and used the dark background in order to quickly realise the figures," she told a news conference.
The painting was done on six pieces of canvas - five vertical and one horizontal - that were sewn together to reach the desired size.
Marcone said the most difficult part of the restoration was repairing some of the damage done by what was believed to have been the first restoration on the painting, in 1670.
The painting was unscathed in the great Messina earthquake of 1908, which killed some 200,000 people and destroyed thousands of buildings in Sicily and Calabria.
It will be on display in Rome's Palazzo Braschi, overlooking Piazza Navona, until mid July, when it will be returned to Sicily.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Cave paintings may be world's oldest - China Daily
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Neanderthals may have been cave-painting artists, according to research published on Thursday that details a new method of analyzing cave paintings in Spain and claims they are the oldest in the world. The tests on 50 paintings in 11 caves in northern ...Source: www.chinadaily.com.cn
Budding young painters at Notre Dame Preparatory School are inspired by the Norwich School of Artists - EDP 24
Children at the Notre Dame Preparatory School put their hand to painting a landscape in the style of the Norwich School of Artists. From left, Faith Fulcher, 7; Noah Kingston, 8; and Harriet Hathway, 9. Picture: Denise Bradley
Emma Knights
Friday, June 15, 2012
10:20 AM
Schoolchildren have been creating their own landscapes after being inspired by the works of master painters.
Year three and four students from Notre Dame Preparatory School in Dereham Road, Norwich, spent yesterday taking part in an Open Skies workshop that focused on the work of the Norwich School of Artists, and then gave the budding young artists the chance to create their own masterpieces based on the John Crome painting Road with Pollards.
Roxanne Matthews, of LivingNorwich, who organised the event, said: “At the beginning we were inspired by the Norwich School of Artists, particularly John Crome and John Cotman, and we also had an original John Thirtle painting from the Art 18/21 gallery to look at.
“We then did sketching and talked about perspective and then created paintings based on a Crome painting.
“The children all created some really fantastic pieces – some of the paintings really were masterpieces.”
Kimberley Wragg, year three teacher and the school’s art and design and technology coordinator, said: “The children were so engrossed in everything, so enthusiatic and excited, and every single one of them has achieved a really good painting.”
After the art session, yesterday the children also enjoyed hearing some Norwich Tudor Storytelling by the Yarnsmith of Norwich.
Any other schools interested in taking part in a LivingNorwich project should email hello@livingnorwich.co.uk or visit www.livingnorwich.co.uk
Also see the LivingNorwich website for details of events open to the public.
Are you involved in a new arts event? Call reporter Emma Knights on 01603 772428 or email emma.knights@archant.co.uk
Source: www.edp24.co.uk
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