[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:04.01,0:00:05.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We are in the Louvre and we are looking at
Dialogue: 0,0:00:05.70,0:00:07.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Caravaggio's painting "The Death of the Virgin"
Dialogue: 0,0:00:07.18,0:00:10.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,from 1605-1606, and this is a very large painting .
Dialogue: 0,0:00:10.64,0:00:13.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And it is quite dark.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:13.25,0:00:15.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Caravaggio is known for painting in the dark manner
Dialogue: 0,0:00:15.40,0:00:18.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but this is an especially dark painting and it actually might need to be cleaned.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:18.95,0:00:22.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Maybe, we see that dark tenebrous background
Dialogue: 0,0:00:22.30,0:00:24.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the figure is very, very close to us
Dialogue: 0,0:00:24.61,0:00:26.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but we don't see anything that we might expect to see
Dialogue: 0,0:00:26.91,0:00:29.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in a painting of "The Virgin Mary's Death".
Dialogue: 0,0:00:29.11,0:00:32.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Normally we may expect to see her being sent to heaven
Dialogue: 0,0:00:32.74,0:00:36.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or angels receiving her in heaven and typicall of Caravaggio
Dialogue: 0,0:00:36.10,0:00:39.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is created a spiritual scene but totally down-to-earth
Dialogue: 0,0:00:39.68,0:00:43.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and use a very everyday language depicted.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:43.13,0:00:46.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The Virgin Mary herself looks like she could be a contemporary Roman.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:46.36,0:00:48.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,She doesn't look particularly spiritual
Dialogue: 0,0:00:48.95,0:00:51.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,aside from the faint halo
Dialogue: 0,0:00:51.37,0:00:53.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which we can barely make out around her head.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:53.66,0:00:58.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Her hair is undone, the front of her dress is coming up,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:58.05,0:01:01.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,her feet are bare which was really indecent.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:01.34,0:01:03.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The priest of her times said that she looked like
Dialogue: 0,0:01:03.96,0:01:07.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Caravaggio had modeled her on a prostitute that had been dragged down from the river.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:07.44,0:01:11.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Hardly inappropriate model for the Virgin Mary.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:11.47,0:01:14.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In fact the Monks had rejected the painting because of that rumour.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:14.73,0:01:16.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So the painting is down-to-earth
Dialogue: 0,0:01:16.58,0:01:19.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it is in a sense the Catholic's story brought
Dialogue: 0,0:01:19.20,0:01:22.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,into our world in a most direct way,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:22.32,0:01:24.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and when you look at the scale of the painting
Dialogue: 0,0:01:24.54,0:01:27.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the way that this young woman is mourning in the foreground,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:27.21,0:01:30.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,bends down, she seems to virtually be in our space.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:30.18,0:01:34.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We can reach over to that copper basin that is just at her feet
Dialogue: 0,0:01:34.09,0:01:36.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and seems to be just at ours as well.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:36.79,0:01:39.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think Caravaggio really intentionally
Dialogue: 0,0:01:39.72,0:01:41.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,left the space open for us
Dialogue: 0,0:01:41.31,0:01:44.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the circle of mourners who surround her.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:44.57,0:01:47.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you look at them they are obviously the apostles.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:47.09,0:01:50.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But Caravaggio has let the light fallen
Dialogue: 0,0:01:50.10,0:01:51.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,perhaps in the most unflattering aspects of their features
Dialogue: 0,0:01:51.79,0:01:55.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the way that I think is typical of Caravaggio
Dialogue: 0,0:01:55.46,0:01:59.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and his interest in the everyday and the common and the lowly
Dialogue: 0,0:01:59.52,0:02:02.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But it is not to say that he is not a master of the composition.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:02.46,0:02:06.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you look on that wonderful swash of red cloth above,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:06.51,0:02:09.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the way it frames beautifully and elegantly the scene,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:09.22,0:02:13.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but it also creates a kind of arcing curve that is repeated in those bold heads
Dialogue: 0,0:02:13.24,0:02:16.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which actually also sort of reverse and lead us down to the Virgin Mary.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:16.95,0:02:20.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Her body lies across a diagonal or mind that they were no longer in the Renaissance.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:20.99,0:02:26.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We are looking at the more activated composition that is very much typical of the baroque.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:26.69,0:02:29.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Her arm creates a different kind of diagonal as it moves towards us
Dialogue: 0,0:02:29.96,0:02:33.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it has this incredible broken wrist
Dialogue: 0,0:02:33.05,0:02:35.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which then leads us down to the woman below her.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:35.16,0:02:38.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think it is almost as if Caravaggio is suggesting
Dialogue: 0,0:02:38.12,0:02:40.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that we should be like this young woman before us
Dialogue: 0,0:02:40.46,0:02:43.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,bend over in sorrow for the death of the Virgin.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:43.22,0:02:47.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I was noticing the hands, the hands of the apostle in gold
Dialogue: 0,0:02:47.65,0:02:50.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that hand blesses for sure. It's wonderful isn't it?
Dialogue: 0,0:02:50.41,0:02:53.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The figure below him has got head in his hands.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:53.32,0:02:57.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The figure next to the man in gold is weeping, is rubbing his eyes
Dialogue: 0,0:02:57.78,0:03:01.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The other figure next to him with his head up in his hands
Dialogue: 0,0:03:01.85,0:03:04.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then down to the Virgin Mary
Dialogue: 0,0:03:04.70,0:03:06.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,whose arm is for sure hand hang down but the other hand,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:06.94,0:03:10.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the right hand looks as if it was sort of flocked down on her chest.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:10.86,0:03:15.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you sit we can really sense that this is indeed a dead body.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:15.92,0:03:20.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There is no sense of spiritual rebirth or salvation.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:20.30,0:03:23.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We almost feel rigour setting in here.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:23.39,0:03:26.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Look at the way that her right hand, the ring finger
Dialogue: 0,0:03:26.24,0:03:29.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is tucked under the middle finger in a kind of
Dialogue: 0,0:03:29.10,0:03:31.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,passive way that no living person would allow to happen.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:31.80,0:03:34.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It is that Caravaggio was completetly rejecting
Dialogue: 0,0:03:34.17,0:03:36.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the elegance of the high Renaissance
Dialogue: 0,0:03:36.37,0:03:40.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to intentionally give us something difficult and almost ugly.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:40.50,0:03:43.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's something that is off our world,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:43.63,0:03:46.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,this embrace of the spiritual through our world.