New Art Travesty ~ Frodo as Caravaggio's Lute Player....

[mechtild]

~ detail from Frodo in Caravaggio’s “The Lute Player”

Yes, it’s time for a new manip, this one based on the Baroque master, Caravaggio. For my fellow-art fans out there, here are selected snippets taken from the packed Caravaggio entry in Wikipedia:

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (28 September 1571 – 18 July 1610) was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. He is the first great representative of the Baroque school.

Even in his own lifetime Caravaggio was considered enigmatic, fascinating, and dangerous. He burst upon the Rome art scene and never lacked for commissions or patrons, yet handled his success atrociously. An early published notice on him, dating from 1604, tells how "after a fortnight's work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument."

In 1606 he killed a young man in a brawl and fled from Rome with a price on his head. He was twenty-five. In 1508, in Malta, he was involved in another brawl, and yet another in Naples in 1609, possibly a deliberate attempt on his life by unidentified enemies. By the next year, at the age of 38, after a career of little more than a decade, he was dead.

Famous and extremely influential while he lived, Caravaggio was almost completely forgotten in the centuries after his death, and it was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered.

When Caravaggio arrived in Rome in 1592 (he had apprenticed for four years in Milan), he did "hack-work": painting flowers and fruit for the very successful artist, Giuseppe Cesari. In 1594 he left, determined to make his own way.

His fortunes were at their lowest ebb, but he forged some extremely important friendships. Painter Prospero Orsi introduced him to influential collectors; architect Onorio Longhi, more balefully, introduced him to the world of Roman street-brawls. Sixteen-year-old Sicilian artist Mario Minniti served as a model, and, years later, would be instrumental in helping Caravaggio to important commissions in Sicily.

It had been suggested that the model for the boy in many of Caravaggio’s paintings in the late 1590’s (whom some viewers thought was a girl) might have been Pedro Montoya, a castrato known to have been a member of the Del Monte household and a singer at the Sistine Chapel at about this time. More recently, Caravaggio biographer Peter Robb has identified him as Mario Minniti.

Wikipedia has a whole page on Caravaggio's The Lute Player, of which there are three versions, all painted in 1596. The first version of The Lute Player, the one that I have used for my manip, hangs in the The Hermitage, in St. Petersburg. The second version is in the Metropolitan Museum, in New York. A third version, called Apollo the Lute Player, hangs in the Ex-Badminton House, in Gloucestershire.

In every version the detail work is unbelievable, not only for the human figure, but for all the “still life” elements. His early years doing “hack-work” to keep himself from starving, painting flowers and fruit in Cesari's workshop, did not go to waste.

I was fascinated to learn the identity of the model, since his face appears in so many of Caravaggio's paintings. I will provide links to other paintings for which Mario Minniti sat.

Two are paintings from which I already have made manips.: The Fortune Teller (made into this manip), and Bacchus (made into this manip, one of my earliest Frodo Art Travesties). Clearly, the model is the same.

Here are two others painted between 1594 and 1596, for which his companion (friend?—fellow-artist?—lover?— all three?), Mario Minniti was a model: The Cardsharps, and The Musicians. The first was a huge success, the second faulted only for its spatial relations.

Of these it is also written in the Wikipedia entry, “The allegedly homoerotic ambience of these paintings has been the centre of considerable dispute amongst scholars and biographers since it was first raised in the later half of the 20th century".




A perusal of Caravaggio’s 1594 painting, Boy With a Basket of Fruit persuades me that the painter found his model and friend Minniti erotic -- his image if not his person:





The almost photographically-rendered fruit is the technical tour de force, but the extremely sensuous youth who holds the basket is not to be ignored. His shapely bared shoulder, curved neck, ruddy complexion, and full, parted lips all pronounce the fruit-bearer as luscious as the fruit.




Mario Minniti did not model only for secular paintings. In Caravaggio’s St. Francis in Ecstasy (detail) he appears as an angel, gently supporting and consoling the saint who has just received the stigmata:






The curves, the lush colours and textures, even the undraped shoulder all are there in the figure of the angel, but the mood is very different.




~*~



When I first became a fan of the LotR films, I remember reading in more than one review that spoke of the particular beauty of Elijah Wood’s Frodo as "something out of Caravaggio". pearlette has called film-Frodo a "Baroque angel". I think they all were thinking of this painting, and paintings like it: images of youths in which the sublime and the earthy come together, at once strong and sensuous, timeless and immediate.



For the face in my new “Frodo Art Travesty” I used a screencap from the scene in the Prancing Pony at Bree:








The source painting for the manip is Caravaggio’s first version of “The Lute Player”, 1596:

In this version of Caravaggio's painting, the marble table-top holds a violin and bow (as if expecting another player, said one commenter), a vase of flowers and a selection of fruit, all of it beautifully rendered. This copy does not begin to show the detail. The sheet music on the table is an actual song by Jacques Arcadelt (1515–1568). Viewed in person, the visible text begins: "Vous savez que je vous aime et vous adore (...) Je fus vôtre”....

You know I love you and adore you...I was yours.

Did Caravaggio feel himself addressed by this song personally, or did he mean it more generally?

In any event, in this Frodo Art Travesty, it is Frodo Baggins, not Mario Minniti who is the Troubadour of Love. The viewer must conjecture to whom the troubadour might be revealing his heart.


~*~

As usual, not a very expert mannipper, I mainly tweaked the source and face images for a match in lighting, colour, sharpness, and contrast. I used the clone tool to create and detail extra hair. With the clone and blend tools I fitted the face into the main painting. I used the airbrush for fine-tinting, and applied the "film grain--rough" filter at various transparencies to help make the apparent texture of the screencap a better match to Caravaggio's painting.

The main outlay of time, however, went (as usual) to finding the right face.

~ Frodo as “The Troubadour of Love” in Caravaggio’s ‘The Lute Player’:












ETA #1:

I was wondering to a few art/Frodo fans, why hadn't there been a film made of Caravaggio's life? It seems like a natural: great costumes, violence, sex, and fascinating characters. wendylady1 pointed out that a film had indeed been made twenty years ago, directed by Derek Jarman. I had been thinking Oliver Reed would have been perfect for Caravaggio.

Caravaggio slipped self-portraits into several of his paintings, but take a look at this 1621 posthumous pastel done by Ottavio Leoni (a younger artist who had sketched Caravaggio when they were younger):





Middle-aged Oliver Reed, as I live and breathe. (whiteling would agree.) But Reed must already have been too old in 1986 -- or too drunk, or just unavailable. The actor chosen to play Caravaggio was Nigel Terry. But guess who was cast as his lover, Ranuccio, the man Caravaggio killed in a fight? Sean Bean!

Naturally, I have applied through Inter-library loan to borrow a copy of this out-of-print film. Sean Bean as the lover! Hubba-hubba. If anyone is interested in reading the customer reviews for it at Amazon, they are HERE.



ETA #2:

I've just started browsing the recent bio of the artist by Peter Robb, M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio. Caravaggio sounds as though he had an erotic apprecation for both females and males, but he definitely had a weakness for his youth models.

Fellow-artist Mario Minniti, whom he painted many times in the mid-to-late 1590's, was only five years younger than Caravaggio. He married, it seems, some time after 1600. He never became the artist Caravaggio was but he had a successful career and provided contacts for Caravaggio. Caravaggio's new boy model was only twelve when he first was painted him as an angel in "The Martyrdom of St. Matthew" (1599-1600).

At the time that Mario ceased being his main boy model, Caravaggio began to paint this young boy. He was Francesco Boneri, nick-named "Cecco". By 1602 Caravaggio was painting him as a strapping, delectable adolescent in pictures that are unabashedly lusty. Here is Cecco as Love Victorious and as St. John in the Wild. (These can be clicked to enlarge.)

Caravaggio's contemporaries seemed to think that Cecco was not only a model and servant but also shared his master's bed. I am thinking Cecco was more than a casual bed-partner, since he seems to have made Cecco a pupil. The artist Cecco del Caravaggio ("Caravaggio's Cecco") is believed to have been the boy who was Caravaggio's model.

Furthermore, there's the visual evidence in one of Caravaggio's later works painted in 1606, the year after he killed a man in a brawl (this dating is according to Peter Robb; the tradition said the painting was done in the last year of his life).

In this version of David holding the head of Goliath, David observes the head of the giant he has slain aloft with a pensive, almost melancholy expression. The model for this David is Cecco, but, even more interestingly, the face of Goliath is Caravaggio's self-portrait. Perhaps the painting shows Caravaggio's feelings about being arrested and convicted for murder: he had "a price of his head" and the price had been paid: exile, and the "cutting-off" of his career (in fact, he continued to paint). Or had love for his boy-pupil "slain" him?


~ "David With the Head of Goliath", 1606 or 1609 -- Francesco 'Cecco' Boneri as David, Caravaggio as Goliath









Scrapbook Album of “Frodo Art Travesties”.

Table of LJ Entries featuring Frodo Art Travesties.



~ Mechtild

Comments

[pearlette.livejournal.com]

I love that shirt on him. :):):):):):)

What a dreamboat!

Mmmmm. Yes, I really do like that shirt on him very much indeed. :)

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Pearl. That definitely is a dreeeeeaaaaamy shirt Caravaggio has given him. P.S., I added a spot of colour to his cheeks since you posted, just in case you saved it and would like to re-save it.

[hobbitlove83.livejournal.com]

*happy, happy, sigh*

That is so beautiful, Mechtild; both Frodo and the painting!
I just can't stop staring.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

You are welcome, Hobbitlove. Caravaggio really had film-Frodo in mind, as we all know!

[bagma.livejournal.com]

Beautiful, as always. Frodo and Caravaggio... what a perfect combination!:)

Thank you for the manip and the very interesting explanation.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Bagma, I hope teaching is a little better these days. Perhaps you could do a lesson on the Baroque? Stop! Don't beat me!

[shirebound]

I enjoyed your commentary as much as the manip! :D

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Shirebound.

[aredhelebenesse.livejournal.com]

Oh good heavens!
Give this creature wings and set him on a splendorous baroque altar as an angel musician! (Well I just listen to Telemann's music, that might make my mind thinking in a certain direction.) But what you created is a reason for me to try and be good a life long, then get in Heaven and see this angel with my own eyes!
Thank you for sharing this special jewel, Mechtild! It is so wonderful!

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Aredhelebenesse! You are a fan of the painter as well as the hobbit, then? Well, I suppose so. Just look at the chiaroscuro in your icon manip!

Film-Frodo and Caravaggio really do suit.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh that is wonderful! You did a great job!

Have you seen my new forum for manippers? You should join!

http://community.livejournal.com/manip_res/profile

[random-fandom.livejournal.com]

Strange why it doesn't have me logged in...

That was me showing you the forum!

[julchen11.livejournal.com]

Thank you my dear for this wonderful post. The report is very interesting, Caravaggio's picture is wonderful and your manip ... absolutely gorgeous .
I don't know that much about art but it's the softness here that hits me hard. Standing infront of this picture (if it would be real) I'm sure I couldn't resist to touch it. The colours, the shirt and those beautiful face, the small hands ... all fits so very well.
Thank you again my little artist - it's stunning what you are doing.
*happy sigh*
*hugs you tight*

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Standing infront of this picture (if it would be real) I'm sure I couldn't resist to touch it.

I'd want to touch it, too! I know what you mean, seriously. I was at an art museum last week that had a special exhibit which included a Caravaggio and other masterworks from previous centuries and I got cautioned by the guards immediately: too close to the art works!

[elgato-gamgins.livejournal.com]

Very beautiful. I just studied the baroque style in Art History.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

That's one of my favourite eras, El Gato, and an excellent one for the LotR films, Frodo, especially.

[alyrthia.livejournal.com]

Ooh....I loooove this. I've always really liked Caravaggio. And I've always really liked, umm that Frodo fellow. Mix em together and it's a pretty heady combo. Thank you!!

(Funny, this reminds me--I bought a poster in high school called "Renaisance Minstrels" which is a Caravaggio? Right?? Anyhow--it had the Beatles heads painted in as the minstrel characters --quite well done--and well before photo manip!!!)

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Funny, this reminds me--I bought a poster in high school called "Renaisance Minstrels" which is a Caravaggio? Right??

Alyon, go back up to the post and open the link for "The Musicians" -- maybe that is the painting you are talking about. How funny, if they put the heads of the Beatles in it. But, why not? When I saw it I thought, "This would make a great manip to feature ALL the hobbit characters!"

[aussiepeach.livejournal.com]

Oh my WORD. *palpitates* That shirt. Play me like a lute, Frodo!

I have a copy of that pic in the book I bought from the Hermitage, and I never noticed the girl was so flat-chested. Interesting. The book also suggested the painting might be about the transient nature of beauty, (sob!) with the fiddle having a broken string. Or about the five senses. It's working on my senses, anyway.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

That ain't no girl, baby, though the sash or ribbon-thing in Mario Minniti's hair makes him look a lot like a girl, that's for sure. Yeah, he's flat-chested because he's a guy.

The "transient nature" remark was included in one of the notes about 'The Lute Player' I read, too, but mentioning the full-blown flowers and fruit that often imply the impermanence of natural goods (the fruit will rot, the flowers fade, etc.).

Frodo sure is a dish in that shirt. From Pearl's comment, I think the shirt gives her a Darcy-emerges-from-Pemberly's-fish-pond moment. It is awfully nice on him, requiring only its slow removal.

[mariole.livejournal.com]

His shapely bared shoulder, curved neck, ruddy complexion and full, parted lips all pronounce the fruit-bearer as luscious as the fruit.

*dies the death of the Beautiful Fro*

Frodo in Bree is yum yum oogle oogle good good. Yeah dat one fine manip you got dere ooh yah lassie me likes okay lick lick yum some more

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

I was just telling Peachy about the removability of that lovely shirt. Brings out the Ripper in a woman, no?

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Utterly exquisite, Mechtild. The manip is wonderful, such a perfect job of blending, it looks like it was painted that way, and that's such a lovely picture of Frodo. Your commentary is, as always, as enjoyable as the manip itself.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much, Mews! And thanks again for reccing it in your thread.

[stillscarlet.livejournal.com]

That. Is. GORGEOUS! And you did such a masterful job of matching the screencap to the painting! You know, Frodo's face there reminded me of that photo I use as default avatar. *swoon*

Really, a wonderful job. You deserve a round of applause!

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

*bows* Thank you so much, Scarlet!!!

Which photo had you used for your default avatar? You've been using Dreamy Chiaroscuro Black-and-White Elijah for a while, now. I can't remember what you used before it.

[belleferret.livejournal.com]

I am continually amazed how you find just the right image to incorporate in the art work, and how you make it look like it's been there for hundreds of years.

Beautiful!!

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Wow, Belleferret. High praise, indeed! I do try hard, though, to find a good match between face and painting. I shop my screencap files, sometimes making new ones if I can't find exactly what seems to suit. If I can't make up my mind, I cut out the finalists and "try them on" the painting, making my decision from that selection.

[ex-absolutef238.livejournal.com]

i absolutely love what you did to his face. it's just beautiful.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Absolute Fiction. You are gracious!

Frodo must inspire you a lot.

[abandonada.livejournal.com]

Such skills! Thanks for sharing. I agree with other people that your commentary is quite interesting as well. Just beautiful!

Re: Frodo must inspire you a lot.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much, Abandonada. It is gracious of you to comment.

[wendylady1.livejournal.com]

Mech,
You really are getting extremely good at this lark, aren't you ?!!
I love Caravaggio's paintings, especially his talent for painting light and shadow, ...the fruit, as you point out, are more than just edible, they are positively luscious !! As for his young men, well, have you seen the film of his life by Derek Jarman ?...it's an eye opener !!

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

There's a film? There's a film? I was just commenting that it seems to me that his life would make a GREAT film. I will have to see if it's available to rent or borrow somewhere.

[ilthit.livejournal.com]

:D That works beautifully! That's Frodo in the Undying Lands. I bet there's some elf lord or lady around who's kind of a leading figure in Bohemian elfish circles and he's got a room full of people in robes playing and reading poetry, and Frodo is just geeking out. Prettily. Angstily. Because that is what the Frodo does.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Prettily. Angstily. Because that is what the Frodo does.

And does it well. ;)

Thanks for commenting!

[melyanna-65.livejournal.com]

Oh my, what a beauty!!

I should be accostumed by the way Frodo fits classical portraits by now, but I can't help, each time I'm totally amazed.

I almost gasped when I saw this one and now I'm staring at its perfection.

There should be a real exhibition of your Frodo's art, that would be fantastic.

Thanks for sharing, sweetie!!

*lots of hugs*

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

An exhibition? That would be rich, Melyanna. Just think of the extra guards they'd have to hire to keep the viewers fingers, lips and other body parts off the "canvases"! And a fresh contingent to force them all to leave at closing time.

[este-tangletoes.livejournal.com]

It’s been an age since your last 'Frodo Art Travesty' and it has definitely been worth the wait.

Looking at ~ detail from Frodo in Caravaggio’s “The Lute Player” brings into focus that beautiful neck – yum yum slurrrrp!

I love his long clever fingers.

I often wonder how many hearts FilmFrodo has captured *sigh*

Thank you Mechling ;-D

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

"Mechling" - I really do like that, Este.

It’s been an age since your last 'Frodo Art Travesty' and it has definitely been worth the wait.

You are right. It was in August. But I was on a roll with the screencap series, and, besides, I just hadn't found new paintings that would truly suit. I have another Baroque painting "on the easel" - and have done for months - but I fear it will not be worth the work, turning out to be merely pretty (not that that's a bad thing!).

But, just because you were my "tip", I'll let you know that I finally have chosen four screencaps I made from the love scene in Orlando. I think they might work, bad as the lighting is. Don't know when they'll be ready, but if they come out, I think they'll work well.

[whiteling.livejournal.com]

Brava, Mechtild!! What a won-der-ful new art manip! No wonder it’s such a luscious feast for the eyes, being composed in a most sensuous way from the two top-notch ingredients Caravaggio and Film-Frodo. :-) Thank you so much for this.

Your comments on Caravaggio’s life were also super interesting. He must really have led a most passionate, dramatic, wild life. Shame that he died at only 38. What fantastic art had he created if he had had more time!
The Wikipedia article shows a portrait sketch of Master Caravaggio

and I find it bears a striking resemblance to the late British actor Oliver Reed (played one of the Musketeers, for example), who was also said to have been a wild man (regarding drinking and fighting; he wasn’t involved in any capital crime though).
It's unbelievable that an outstanding artist like Caravaggio was forgotten for 400 years!

[bagendbabe.livejournal.com]

What an interesting sketch of Caravaggio, Whiteling!

Yes, he does look rather like a young Oliver Reed - and "said to be to be a wild man" was most definitely "WAS a wild man" with regard to boozing. He appeared on TV extremely drunk on more than one occasion. A late, great actor though.

[bagendbabe.livejournal.com]

So good to have another Mech-Manip - and it is as sensational as ever!

I agree with Pearl about the shirt *melts in a puddle of drool* - the thought of slipping it slowly over the ivory shoulders ....

Thanks so much for the info about Caravaggio, it was fascinating. :)

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

You put that shirt right back on him, BEB. All of us are going to want to have a turn doing that. ;)

[golden-berry.livejournal.com]

asdfgh$!!!*jkl; *swoon*


THUD
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.
.
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huh? wha? what happened?

Mechtild, you have become a master of art manip, and the info on Caravaggio was the icing on the cake.

*happy sigh* :)

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

[Ooops, stuck BEB's comment in the wrong place- must fix it!]

Goldenberry, it did come out rather swoonily, no? He'll have to wear that around BEWTE, although I don't suppose he'll be allowed to keep it on for long.

[frodos-smile.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmm... Mechtild's/Caravaggio's lute-playing Frodo can sing to me of love anytime. In fact, I do believe that arrested look on his face means he's noticed me entering the room.

Pardon me. I think that spot on the bench next to him is mine... *waggles brows at Mechtild* ;-)

His beauty is simply classic, is it - is *he* - not?

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmm... Mechtild's/Caravaggio's lute-playing Frodo can sing to me of love anytime (...) I think that spot on the bench next to him is mine...

Your icon matches your "Mmmmmm" very well, Frodo's Smile! (And I think he would not be averse to your presence on the bench; Frodo welcomes every sighing hearer.)

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

I loved him as Athos in The Three Musketeers.

Me, too, White Gull. I loved him in a lot of things, actually. But in The Three Musketeers, it was D'Artagnan (Michael York) on whom I developed a crush.