Caravaggio in 3D!

Tableaux vivantes (living pictures) are an art form that dates to the middle ages. In these, live humans (often amateurs) would depict a famous scene from the Bible or or from a famous painting, complete with sets and dramatic lighting. They were usually static (a snapshot before the era of cameras). They became popular in the Victorian USA and UK, as amateurs could show their pious nature by depicting Jesus and the disciples, the Virgin Mary, the Last Supper, etc. A less pious advantage was that 19th century law in both the USA and UK allowed public nudity on the stage as long as the actors remained motionless--so tableaux vivantes was also an early version of legal porn. 

Tableaux vivantes have mostly died out, but returned in a few movies like Derik Jarman's erotic Caravaggio (1986), in which the famed Baroque painter's violent life is intertwined with tableaux vivantes of some of his famed paintings. Intriguingly, this device was recently brought to the live stage in Lisbon's Sao Vicente de Fora Monastery, where over one hour 6 actors depicted 15 famed paintings by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610). He's always been one of my favorite artists. His use of lighting to achieve drama as well as the forsaking of static geometric purity of Renaissance painting for angular "suspended in air" poses brought new drama and excitement to painting, and these devices were widely copied by later artists. 

This was a quirky event to be sure, as the actors entered and remained on the stage dressed in neutral clothing, then dressed for each depiction in full view of the audience, ranging from donning multiple colorful layers to stripping down to the briefest loincloth. Piped-in excerpts from the Bach Mass in B minor accompanied the show...not quite the right fit temporally, since the piece was written one century later than the paintings...I might have chosen Monteverdi, Gesualdo, or Palestrina instead. There was something a bit voyeuristic about watching all this dressing and undressing; Caravaggio would have likely approved, since he was a wild character who prowled the streets of Italian cities for prostitutes (male and female) and street urchins to hire and use in his dramatic paintings. What I found exciting was the sudden way in which the actors suddenly transitioned from normal posture to the highly stylized poses of the paintings. They would hold these poses (often very gymnastically challenging) for about 15 seconds, then would relax and move to the next "painting". I wondered if this would all be silly or repetitious, but it was actually remarkably effective and dramatic. It somehow made me feel like I was eavesdropping into Caravaggio's studio watching him coach his street people into the right positions. It certainly helped that the male actors in Lisbon were rough-hewn types, the sort of guy Caravaggio liked. Here are a couple examples...

Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy (1606)

Crucifixion of St. Peter(1601)

All in all, this was unique and surprisingly effective presentation that made me want to see or revisit the actual paintings of Caravaggio in the next couple years. Rome is a particularly good place to see many of the 105 extant works, but there are also multiple works in Berlin, London, Madrid, Florence, and Paris. There are only 10 in the USA, four in the Metropolitan NYC (also one each in Princeton, Hartford, Kansas City, Dallas, Detroit, Cleveland). I'll be going to Florence and Rome next year, and will try to see as many as I can...watch for my report!