Page 21 - VICTOR HAGEA : Amazing

In his book How to Destroy Painting, devoted

to the art of Caravaggio, the French philosopher
Louis Marin discusses the contribution

of interplay between light and shadow in

the painterly transformation achieved by

Caravaggio. Marin opens up his chapter “On
Light, Shadow, and Narrative” with Mancini’s

words, an art collector and contemporary art

critic of Caravaggio. Mancini shows how the

play of light and shadow makes impossible
the narrative in Caravaggio’s painting. The

light is so bright and the shadow so dark

as to create a certain sense of depth in the

painting, which makes the story impossible to
unfold. For that reason, concludes Mancini,

these procedures are not appropriate for the

composition of a story, and the expression

of emotion. Of course, this is the point of
view of the art critic defending the principles

of Classical representation. But according

to Marin, what is at stake in Caravaggio’s

painting is what is at stake in all paintings.
And it is exactly these procedures that led

to the revolutionary shift performed by

Caravaggio, “destroying” the representation.

The question raised by Caravaggio in his art
concerns the destruction of the painting in

its Classical form, as well as the pleasure and

jouissance the painting produces.

Lights and Shadows

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