Andrew Graham - Dixon on Caravaggio, VPRO boeken, 9th of October 2011

A biography about a painter who leaps across the ages.

Presentator Wim Brands shows a fragment from Mean Streets by Martin Scorsese, to let us know how the moviemaker was influenced by Caravaggio. The close-ups of the actors in dark and light are directly copied from the painter. The painting The conversion of Paul who is filled with light and is a good example of this. The subtitle of the Dutch translation of the Caravaggio biography by Andrew Graham - Dixon is: Een leven tussen licht en duisternis.

BBC-presentator and art historian Graham - Dixon says he had an interview with Scorsese six years ago in London. Caravaggio (1571-1610) catches the eye immediately by the roughness and rawness of his paintings. He was the first painter who used light and dark in the center of his work and can be called the father of the cinematography.

Andrew Graham - Dixon made a documentary thirteen years ago, titled How killed Caravaggio?

From then more and more came up about Caravaggio. Caravaggio was a difficult character. Graham - Dixon had an interview with Keith Richard who saw the picture of Caravaggio on the back of the book and said that he could have been a Rolling Stone.

Caravaggio was a pimp, a murderer and sexually very active. He was a dangerous man, but not a rebel,  Graham - Dixon says. When he was a young boy all his male family members were killed by the plague. That’s why he looked for God during his life. He wanted to have a fatherfigure. Torn as he was he repeated the same patterns over and over again. He said that all his sin were mortal. He is a real human being. By sfregio a cut in the face he died.

The biography took him hundreds years of research, Graham - Dixon says. Lots of researchers did parts of it and he did the synthesis. Tracking down all the information was a lot of work. He also wrote about Michelangelo during that period. Later on more details about the life of Caravagggio became available.

What would you ask him if he was still alive? Brands asks.

‘Can I buy you a drink?’ Graham - Dixon says as a joke, but then more seriously: ‘Did you ever love somebody? Did you believe in God? Why did you feel so compelled to destroy your life?

Did he believe in God? Brands asks.

He wanted it badly. A priest said that Caravaggio painted the doubt and the fear in the darkness. Caravagio left room for those who struggled with believing.

Caravaggio was a painter who leaps across the ages, Graham - Dixon says. The only good artist is he who represents reality well, Caravaggio said. He knew how good a painter he was, Graham - Dixon says. He invented Rembrandt, who also learned to break the rules. Caravaggio brought humanity into the arts. He worked very quickly, maybe in two days he finished a painting.

Oek de Jong also likes his paintings very much, as I read in De wonderen van de heilbot. He will not be the only one.

A link to the site of VPRO boeken with more information about Caravaggio.