My Favorite Painters – Caravaggio

I have a question for Caravaggio fans, in his work Judith slaying Holoferenes, the original painting portrayed Judith as bare breasted, but later painted on a blouse. Has there been any copies of the original nude, or x-rays done of the painting to reveal the original rendering and if show where would I find a copy?

Reply

narciso,,, that known story!!!!
thats my feeling when i look at this pic, beutiful,, and unique.

Reply

Caravaggio is definitely a favorite of mine also. I particular like his painting of St. John the Baptist (John in the Wilderness)because it always reminds me of the important balance between light and dark, and that what we don’t see is just as important as what we do see in creation.

Reply

Was this the inspiration for your quote from The Alchemist?

“I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus

was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my

banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty

reflected.”

Reply

Narcissus – 1598-1599
There are still doubts as to whether this painting can be attributed to Carravaggio or not.
The painting offers a sharp contrast between light(face, hands and knee) and darkness.

Reply

It is interesting to reflect between the two portrays of people here in these images of the day …
the woman reflected to show her femininity, the innocence, the aspect of something fragile, vulnerable, virginal in knowledge, sexuality and everything…
whereas the man here is – also innocent – yet he seems to be portrayed as possessing all knowledge – though the one internal strife if in fact that of seeking knowledge to face an internal strife.

Differences in light and darkness
- as the woman who held the skull etc…

how gender has been portrayed in narrative, discourse etc.

………..
Savita, I love that which you had to say above.

I agree – we are mirrors also to others..
I can also only say – having been someone who has had a mirror held up to them and rejected it {once or twice ;o)} that this has ALWAYS been when i didn’t need to have my answers given to me – rather i myself, in my own silence, was seeking my own answers [as another reader once wrote - that is our right to connect in life to that silence.. on our own terms and alone..]. A lot is about empowerment and not feeling undermined.. control.

sometimes love can make us hold up a mirror that perhaps it is for God alone to reveal to the person in front of the mirror – not the one holding… because in this way…. it is a true and unbiased reflection, free from conflictions.

I only write on length here on this subject, because it has been such an important feature of my life so far.. and i emphathise with the annoyances and also the trials involved ;o)

Yours respectfully,
Cats

Reply

Narcissus – who fell in love with his own reflection – gazing at himself in the mirror.

But I wonder about people who don’t like what they see in the mirror, who can’t stand the sight of their own reflection: the opposite of narcissism is self-loathing. And I’m not merely talking about one’s physical reflection here. We all have things we don’t particularly like about our own bodies. (For me: my nose is too bulbous, my chest too boney, my eyebrows nonexistent, etc.) But what I am talking about is a much deeper form of self-hatred, the kind that renders a person unable even to accept the love of others.

In love we act as a sort of mirror for one another – reflecting not only what the other presently is, but also the totality of what they can, in potential, become. But when an individual is filled with self-loathing (either from some un-addressed sense of guilt, or as a result of negative thought-patterns learned, usually early-on) then that mirror becomes a source of anguish and a cause for anger. The self-loathing individual attacks and lashes out at the mirror (the lover) for no other reason than that they do not like their own reflection as it is held up to them. This is quite a predicament, as it is very hard, if not impossible, to show love toward such a person, because every time you do, they lash out at you in seemingly inexplicable fits of anger.

This is not from some book on psychology, and anyone who is a psychologist might read this “theory” and deem it completely flawed. That’s okay, because this is just my own personal theory on what renders certain individuals completely incapable of either believing in themselves or accepting the love of others.

By comparison, Narcissus doesn’t seem like such a “tragic” character at all.

Reply