The Conversion of the Magdalene by Caravaggio
This painting was made during the renaissance, a period of artistic expression in Europe during the 14th to 17th centuries. The renaissance was a period of artistic expression that began after the Medici's, a very powerful family that lived in Florence and started a trend by backing artists to make statues, paintings, and monuments in their name. Backing artists became a trend because it showed off your wealth, and artists liked it because before this period their work wasn't appreciated, and most artists lived in poverty. During the Renaissance there was a lot of artistic exploration, and a lot of progress was made towards making paintings more detailed and three-dimensional. And because the images become more like photographs, it is easy to Photoshop a face from a picture into them.
This painting was made by an artist named Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, who was considered the first great baroque style painter. He was relatively well-known in his time period, and had a lot of sponsors from the start, but was addicted to street brawling. He was forced to flee Rome with a price on his head after killing a man in a sword fight. by 1610 he was dead, possibly by the hands of his old enemies.
Caravaggio painted in a baroque style, even though he was still living in a strongly renaissance society. Characteristics of baroque paintings include a sense of energy, movement, tension, ad strong light and dark areas. There was also very prevalent religious themes in art at the time. all these characteristics can be seen in The Conversion of the Magdalene.
This painting portrays a bible scene in which Mary Magdalene being convinced to convert to Christianity. throughout history her role in the bible changed frequently, but in this era she was written as a prostitute who found faith. The mirror, ivory comb, and cosmetics jar are all supposed to represent Mary's past sin, vanity, and the flower she is holding and the ring on her right hand represent her new "marriage" to God and spirituality. The light source is coming from the far right, casting a shadow over Martha (far left, trying to convince her sister Mary of her sins.) and putting Mary (far left) in full light. There is speculation that for two well-known aristocrat women of the time posed for the painting, which would have made the painting more interesting for people in the Renaissance.
I put my friends Mia Carnevale and Sophia Davidson into this painting. Sophia is Mary Magdalene and Mia is Martha.
Sophia: On Right
Mia's Photo: 1/3 shutter speed, f5. Camera 204 (Nikon D3100). Zoom lens.
Sophia's Photo: 1/10 shutter speed, f5. Camera 204 (Nikon D3100). Zoom lens.
I tried to emulate the lighting in the original painting using studio lights. I then went into Photoshop and edited any colour differences, put a cross-hatching filter on the faces to make them look more painted, erased spaces for the painting's hair to show through,and used the stamp tool to fill in any spaces and blend the skin into the painting. Overall I am pretty pleased with the end product!
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