Caravaggio is the synonym for Baroque. The artist known of close physical observation with a dramatic use of chiaroscuro can be called the father of tenebrism.
He made the technique a dominant stylistic element, darkening shadows and transfixing subjects in bright shafts of light. His works are also one of the most influential for the epoch – for example for Peter Paul Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Rembrandt, and artists in the following generation heavily under his influence who were called the Caravaggisti or Caravagesques, as well as tenebrists or tenebrosi ("shadowists"). Today we are going to talk about this severed head – the head of Medusa, the gorgon who had hair of living snakes. Anyone who looked at her was turned to stone. She was decapitated by the hero Perseus who firstly used a shining shield from the goddess Athena to avoid looking at Medusa directly. Here we have a horrified image, of a decapitated head of Medusa, for which the model was apparently a male youth. Medusa is severed but still conscious. He or she just realised its mortality–in a most horror way. Blood pours from it in thick streaks. Medusa screams in silence. The serpents are only the silent witnesses. [caption id="attachment_14870" align="alignnone" width="999"]
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