MICHELANGELO MERISI DA CARAVAGGIO

He was born in Milan the September 29^th, 1571.

In his life, he had some style. One of the first one valued simplicity and attention to naturalistic detail and was closer to the naturalism of Germany than to the stylized formality and grandeur of Roman Mannerism.

He ameliorates this style to become one of the most realistic one of that time… At the limit, with his painting he surprises.

The answer why he painted the most realistic as possible is:  “He preferred to paint his subjects as the eye sees them, with all their natural flaws and defects instead of as idealised creations.” (Wikipedia)

He painted a lot of religious portrait or scene like: David with the Head of Goliath (1609–1610), The Taking of Christ (1602), The Entombment of Christ (1602–1603), and many other one.

He was considered as the cutting edge for the young artists of that time.

There are about 80 oeuvres of Caravaggio that survive with time, they are placed in different museum in the world.

"Michelangelo Merisi, son of Fermo di Caravaggio - in painting not equal to a painter, but to Nature itself - died in Port' Ercole - betaking himself hither from Naples - returning to Rome - 15th calend of August - In the year of our Lord 1610 - He lived thirty-six years nine months and twenty days - Marzio Milesi, Jurisconsult - Dedicated this to a friend of extraordinary genius." (Inscriptiones et Elogia (Cod.Vat.7927))

Loco Locass

Loco Locass was created in 1995. It is a Hip Hop group from Quebec.

They defends the French language in Quebec, and they are champions Quebec sovereignty.

Chafiik of Loco Locass signed a campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid on February 25^th 2010. He wasn’t the only one; there are 500 others artists who signed. [1]

Loco Locass supported the students who are protesting against the Quebec Liberal government. The cause was that this government was converting 103 million of dollars in bursary fundinf to loans. The group created the song “Casse du 24” to support the students who have to deal with the police regression.

The Loco Locass’ group have a self-image of a vehicle promoting the sovereignty option for the Quebec. This image was built by a lot of event they made. For example, the “St-Jean Concert” was a concert they made with “Les Comboys Fringants” and the show marked the government-designated Quebec National Holiday. This take place at Montreal, they produced in the Parc Jean-Drapeau. This happens in 2005.

Loco Locass also created the song “Libérez nous des Libéraux” to demonstrate their opinion on the sovereignty of Quebec.[2]

---

[1] http://www.locolocass.net/nouvelles/content/view/6/32/

[2] http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loco_Locass

An history about a painting: The two boats

In the distant past, two groups, a Chinese one and a Japanese one, decide to prove who have the better country by making a boat course. They decide the date and the boat the will take one mouths before the course.

The day of the course comes on a day of great storm. They are a bit afraid by it, but they decide to race anyway. Both prepare their boat and their equipment.

When they start, the time is pretty good. They are racing closer one to the other, and neither one nor the other wants to lose. So each team decides to go faster.

But when they arrive on the high seas, they are not able to slow their boat. Both boats are beginning to be buffeted by the waves and ocean currents. They captain of each team try to give the order to his team, but the sound of the great storm is bigger than his voice, so the teams do not know what they need to do. Each member starts to be afraid and they put all the equipment on the water to try to save their life.

Each team start to pray to their gods, but the great storm continues to destroy their chance to live.

At one time, both boat begin to sink into the sea, the crews try to survive by clinging to pieces of wood.

There is only one person who survive, and this person make this painting to always remember him that no one of the Chinese and the Japanese is better than the other.

EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN: the iconographic study

Painting By Peter Paul Rubens

His armour is an important piece of this paint. It is typical of this part of era, the model and is motifs are some of the particularity of the influence and the image of the King, Emperor or the Power. This armour is making only for one person and all the measures are taken by a confection of the royalty. The most important thing is to be more seen by the population in the territories. Each of the power members need to be seen for their money and for their power in the society.

The armour style of early 16^th century was first made for the Emperor Maximilian I, in modern term this style has the name: Maximilian armour. “The armour is characterized by armets and close helmets with bellows visors, small fan-shaped narrow and parallel fluting often covering most of the harness (but never the greaves), etching, work taken from woodcuts and sharply waisted cuirasses and squared sabatons.”[1]

Basically this armour was designed to be fashion, to be visually pleasing and to procure a good protection. The style was a mix of Italian and of German style.

All the piece of the armour was worked to be confortable, attractive and protective. The fabrication takes a lot of time, but it was created in the early 1500s, so these Maximilian armour was very advances. The metal procure an awesome look, this is the major goal in the design of armours.

“Among the skillfull armours of the sixteenth century there were helmets that looked like the heads of creatures. Also visors in the shape of a lion could be found. The intention using these artistic ornaments however was not only limited to communicate fear. At the same time these precious plate armours marked exceptional pieces of artwork that should demonstrate the status of their owners. In this manner the knight was able to allegorise a totally different personality so you can consider wearing a plate armour as masquerad as well. These precious plate armours were not constructed to serve in combat..”[2]

---

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_armour

[2] http://www.ritterruestung-handgeschmiedet.de/englishversion/developmentarmour/armoursuit.htm