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The Leaves of Caravaggio

Paulo Martins Oliveira____________________________________________________________________

Grace is even more beautiful than beautyJean de la Fontaine

Creativity is intelligence having fun

Albert Einstein

By mastering the use of ambiguities, various artists of the 15th, 16th, 17th centuries encoded differenttypes of messages throughout multilayered paintings.

Even in the apparently simplest works they designed compromise solutions in order to mergesurreptitious narratives and metaphors.

It is the case of Caravaggios Basket of fruit, in which the two leaves pending on the right actually formthe head and the torso of a poor man, who is looking up to the left [A].

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- Available for consultation

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The man is looking at a seagull that stole his fish [B].

To his disappointment, the bird drops something other than the fish [C].

Thus, in his peculiar way, Caravaggio allegorizes about the continuous injustices and hardships of life,especially of those who are already unfortunate.

In fact, that artist systematically introduced numerous unsuspected sub-narratives in his paintings. Forinstance, again using leaves, Caravaggio elaborated a curious combination in his Bacchus.

1: On the lower left there is a lush leaf suggesting a humanized face, looking eagerly at the bottle ofwine.2: The result is presented on the upper right, where the leaf is red and completely drunk.

In summary, the shown examples demonstrate the wit and versatility of this kind of challenging art, ofwhich Caravaggio was one of the greatest and most subtle interpreters.

2013

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Related writings

Original research (2009-13, independent projects: Escriptos; Akenpapers/Akenvis) Papers (until July 2013)

Bosch and the hidden devils of the Garden Bosch, the surdo canis BotticellisPrimavera:thedualwind DeconstructingCaravaggioandVelzquez DepictingMichelangelo LeonardosLastSupperandthethreelayers Rembrandtandtheartofcompromise Reviewing Konrad Witz an ingenious artist of the 15th century The(diabolic)oakoftheRoverePopes TheAdorationoftheMagi(Botticelli) TheDeceptiveAngels

The Delights of Coudenberg TheDevilishChapelofMichelangelo The Dutch Company ThedynamicconceptofSandroBotticelli TheL(eonardo)andtheS(alai) The Leaves of Caravaggio ThenationalistandrationalJheronimusBosch The Passion of Caravaggio TheSistineCeilingandtheHolySpirit The Sistine Chapel and the new Jeremiah TheSistineChapelofMichelangelo:theLawandtheJudge A Bno de Rafael (P) AltimaCeiadeLeonardoeastrscamadas (P) AsfacesdeEngelbert (P) O conceito dinmico de Caravaggio (P) OengenhodeMatthiasGrnewald (P) OfalsoparasodeTiziano (P) OmecanismodosPainisdeAvis (P) OnacionalistaeracionalJheronimusBosch (P) OsDemniosdeNunoGonalves (P) Porqu Jheronimus Bosch? (P)

Books

Leonardo x Michelangelo The Devils of Art Jheronimus Bosch o relojoeiro dos smbolos Os Demnios de Arte Separata 1 Os Painis de Avis A Janela de Tomar

Forthcoming main publications on the symbolic engineering of artworks (15th-17th centuries): Jan van Eyck,Rogier van der Weyden, Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Titian, Bruegel, Caravaggio, Velzquez, Vermeer(2013-15).

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