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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The Year of Caravaggio

copyright 2010 art of living, PrimaMedia,Inc.



Guest Post by : Karly Berezowsky
This is the year of Caravaggio, the famed Italian artist.. Here are some interesting facts about one of the many geniuses of Italian art..Recently, a Caravaggio painting has been recovered in Berlin, Germany, after being pilfered in 2008 in Odessa, Ukraine. The stolen piece was actually a modern replica of Caravaggio’s Taking of Christ. It has been proclaimed by art historians that the Taking of Christ was not painted by Caravaggio due to distinct differences in the painted figures. It may have been painted by one of his students; despite being manifested as an original Caravaggio by the Soviets in 1950.




But to understand how it was contrived a fake one must understand how immensely avant-garde Caravaggio truly was during the Italian Baroque period. Caravaggio was wholeheartedly innovative and anarchistic because he is taking off the blindfold and showing real issues like murder and squalor. This painting portrays an extremely traumatic murder.



Caravaggio was an Italian Baroque painter. He lived a rough life, he was arrested multiple times. He used ordinary common folk such as people in the streets as his models. He painted down-to-earth, real earthly people with real problems. The subject matter for the majority of his works was religious scenes. He committed a murder and there was a price on his head to bring him in alive or dead. His temper caused him to get into many fights and upset a lot of townspeople which forced him to flee to various areas of Europe. But a life on the run could only last so long.



Caravaggio was an innovator that used techniques called tenebrism and chiaroscuro throughout his work. Many of his pieces are considered to be Shock Theater because they are so dramatic and have theatrical elements to them. For instance, some of his paintings have spotlight lighting and drawn red curtains.



Caravaggio painted what he saw, using people on the streets as models. The Calling of St. Matthew depicted Jesus Christ pointing at Matthew in a dim dive of a tavern. The action starts to the left and then flies off to the right; this makes the composition dynamic because it forces your eyes to move with the unfolding scene.



Caravaggio had an interesting take on classical art which can be seen in his painting, Boy with a Basket of Fruit. In which he makes the God Baccus look sickly due to his greenish skin color, when he is supposed to be the god of wine and merriment. Caravaggio made the God Baccus look more earthly and unkempt. Caravaggio is in a way rejecting the classical form of art by making it more seedy and run-down.



Caravaggio was rejected after he painted The Death of the Virgin. One of Caravaggio’s most famous pieces was Death of the Virgin. It was commissioned for the Church of Santa Maria. His patrons hated it so much they actually returned it to him, totally rejecting his art and skill. It depicts the death of the Virgin Mary. Mary actually looks dead, her flesh is green and the body appears bloated; much like the dead deer do on the side of the road in the summer heat, limbs outstretched and fat. Caravaggio was totally radical painting the Virgin Mary like inflated road kill. It is rumored that he used a drowned whore from the morgue as the model for the Virgin Mary. Just imagine the riot that would ensue if someone painted her like a prostitute today and then plastered it onto the wall of the Vatican. And it is because of all of these clandestine features of the painting that the patron nuns returned it to him. They reasonably objected to the painting because they thought it was too unorthodox because she looks like a corpse which is an indecent image when she is supposed to be an icon of light, heaven and hope.



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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Baba Ganoush-a Healthy Dip

copyright 2010 art of living,PrimaMedia,Inc
Guest Post By: Karly Berezowsky



Baba Ganoush is an old world dish made predominately out of eggplant is a refreshing and simple dish to make with origins in the Middle East. It is still eaten today by the Turkish, Armenian, Greek, Romanian people, along with many of Mediterranean origin. Eggplant or aubergine is a popular ingredient in many Italian dishes as well, so this might be something worth trying out. This dish is especially superb for a vegetarian or for someone who is just trying to eat a little healthier.


One may describe it as an eggplant dip. Some people pair it with pita bread; but it is good enough to eat right off of the plate.


The list of ingredients is as follows:

1 pound of eggplant

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 handful fresh parsley, minced

2 tablespoons tahini

2 tablespoons lemon juice



Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Prick eggplant with a fork and place on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Bake the eggplant until it is soft inside, for approximately 20 minutes. Let the eggplant cool. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise, drain off the liquid. Scoop out the pulp and place into a food processor. Process the eggplant until smooth and transfer to a medium bowl. On a cutting board, mince garlic and 1/4 teaspoon salt together with the flat side of a knife, until it forms a paste. Add the garlic-salt mixture to the eggplant. Stir in the parsley, tahini, and lemon juice. Season with more salt, to taste. Garnish with additional parsley.



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Sept 11 & 12-Hudson Valley Wine Fest-Rhinebeck, NY, Dutchess County Fairgrounds. Maria will take center stage at 2 PM on both days and share recipes, stories from her new award winning book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays & Special Occasions-2nd edition recipes. Maria will be signing copies of the latest book throughout the weekend event.
For more info email: events@marialiberati.com