Photography of Cindy Sherman and Italian Baroque Painters

This study will examine the relationship between the photography of Cindy Sherman, specifically a number of the works from her "History Portraits Series" of 1989-1990, and selected works of the Italian Baroque painters Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. If one considers these three artists in terms of the evolution of a single vision, moving from Caravaggio through Gentileschi to Sherman, one can more easily see the relationships between and among their works. The thrust of this study will focus on such an evolution, from the traditional "masculine perception" (Garrard 4) of Caravaggio to the "special mixture of masculine and feminine elements" (Garrard 7) of Gentileschi to the radically humanist and subversive work of Sherman. Although Sherman, the focus of this study, expropriates the style and content of the Baroque artists, she does so not in order to honor them but rather to subvert the style and meaning of the original works. Specifically, her works focus on human suffering--male and female--which is generally absent from the selected works of the Baroque artists. A study of the works of these artists, featuring themselves as models, will reveal these differences.

The Baroque style, often associated with "a grandiose, richly ornamented, often extravagant style which originated in Italy in the late 16th century as a reaction against classicism" (Bridgewater 109), is, in fact, far more than those surfa

ed, or even stupid. It is, in any case, a far from flattering self-portrait. At the same time, it is true to the Baroque use of ordinary people in everyday situations: "Clearly Caravaggio's painting reflects his own environment. It is an intimate scene, the costumes casual, the grouping informal" (Moir 70). The work is also notable for other Baroque features, including the detailed folds of the rich robe-like cloth over the central musician's shoulder, but particularly the overall sensuousness of the work (a feature reflected in Sherman's self-portraits): the nearness of the bodies of the four young men, the leg of the musician in the foreground apparently in between the legs of the central musician; the naked back, shoulder and arm of the musician in the foreground, and the naked torso of the musician in the background; the feminine features of the young men. In fact, the central musician in "The Musicians" is featured in another work by Caravaggio, "The Lute Player," a character whose gender caused the sort of confusion at which Sherman aims in her works. Moir writes of "The Lute Player": "The androgyny of the lute player confused later writers and critics, . . . who described the model as a woman in a blouse. Baglione corr

Category: Arts - P