COLLECTION NAME:
Archivision Base to Module 9
Record
Preferred Title:
Cerasi Chapel
Alternate Title:
Cappella Cerasi
Image View:
Side view of the altar and altarpiece
Creator:
Annibale Carracci (Italian painter, 1560-1609); Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Italian painter, 1571-1610)
Location:
site: Santa Maria del Popolo (Rome, Lazio, Italy)
Location Note:
Rome, Lazio
Date:
ca. 1600-1601 (creation)
Cultural Context:
Italian
Style Period:
Baroque
Work Type 1:
painting (visual work)
Classification:
painting
Material:
marble; oil on canvas; fresco; stucco
Technique:
intarsia; oil painting (technique)
Relation Work:
part of Santa Maria del Popolo
Subjects:
New Testament; saints; Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint; Peter, the Apostle, Saint
Description:
The radical transformation of Annibale's style since he came to Rome could not be appreciated fully until his altarpiece of the Assumption of the Virgin for the Cerasi Chapel in S Maria del Popolo was unveiled early in 1601 (in situ). Despite the panel's relatively modest size, it has an overpowering impact. Supported by angels, the Virgin erupts from the empty tomb around which the apostles crowd, compressed together in the immediate foreground. Forms are simplified, and the almost geometrical solidity of the figures is intensified by the bright colours and sharp focus typical of panel painting. A staccato tempo of abrupt gestures, sudden twists and turns and unexpected juxtapositions forcefully communicates the picture's dramatic content, replacing the gentler, lyrical rhythms of the Pietà or the Farnese ceiling. The fact that the Assumption was to be flanked by two paintings by Caravaggio no doubt contributed to its extremist position. Faced with the challenge posed by Caravaggio's anti-idealist style, Ann
Collection:
Archivision Addition Module One
Identifier:
1A2-I-R-SP-9-A2
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.
Cerasi Chapel
