Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio, Marcel Duchamp And Mona Hatoum

Artworks are a window into the world of the artist. Artists throughout time have created their artworks as a visual representation of the dynamic, changing world around them. The four agencies of the artwold; the artwork, artworld, the artist and audience all fuse together to influence that artist. This significant relationship is summarised by Conor Oberst when he said, “Art is communication. It does not exist in a vacuum,”. This quote highlights the relationship of the agencies working together to depict the world around the artists. The four artists I will be analyzing are Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Marcel Duchamp and Mona Hatoum. This question asks us to explore each of the agencies and their relationship with each other and,

Firstly Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s works are an insight to the world that was happening around him. His world affected not only his artwork, but the way he presented it to the audience and how it was perceived. Michelangelo Merisi was born in 1571 in the small town of Caravaggio. At the age of six the bubonic plague ripped through his village killing most of his family greatly effecting Caravaggio. Now orphaned Caravaggio grew up on the streets when at the age of only 11 he started an apprenticeship In Milan with the painter Simone Peterzano. In 1593 at the age of 22 Caravaggio moved to Rome to further his learning. After another 3 years of working as an assistant to many artists, Caravaggio began for sell his own paintings. Particularly Caracaggio’s works caught the eye of Cardinal Francesco del Monte who set him up with a place to live and a pension. Between 1595 and 1600 when Caravaggio was living in Palazzo Madama, he the opportunity to become very familiar with the cardinal’s wide art collection of both paintings and sculptures. Caravaggio’s

Art was made to serve a purpose whether it be record prosperity or to educate the general public on religious or historical matters. The artworks were also generally hung in Churches or palaces. Caravaggio’s artworks critically commented on the art agency that was at work in his period of time. The role of the artist was to cater for the patrons of church and as a result this meant the artworks were didactic. Caravaggio brought the art back to the general uneducated impoverished public of his time, instead of placing angels and saints on a pedestal he made them all level. The humanisation of the divine and figures of power allowed the pubic to connect and interact with the artworks on a much larger scale. The saints weren’t now untouchable figures from another world, they were in your local tavern, wearing normal clothes, equals with the people of Rome. Caravaggio’s process emphasised his humanisation, instead of using models who displayed figures of perfection, Caravaggio got his models from the streets of Rome. Simon Shama describes his paintings as ”Destroying the safety barrier between the audience and the painting”. This quote illuminates the way in which his works were able to reach out and connect with the audience on an unprecedentedlevel. However apart from the popularity it gained from the public the church who commissioned these