Caravaggio’s Innovative Painting Techniques

Master Baroque artist Caravaggio used a “camera obscura” among other techniques to trace the models in his paintings.

According to a Florentine researcher, Caravaggio made use of a dark room, first described by Leonardo da Vinci, and was able to fix the outline of his subjects in order to paint them.

It’s unclear whether the artist used or needed optical instruments to paint his famous scenes of food and banquets. These, of course, were the subject of a book we mentioned in an earlier post titled Caravaggio’s Kitchen by Gianni Ummarino. Several readers have written to us to ask how to obtain this book. We haven’t been able to find it on amazon.com or through other vendors. But we did find the author/photographer’s website. Go to ummarinoeummarino.com for more information.

Update! The title of the Ummarino book is 15 Ricette del Rinascimento (15 Recipes from the Renaissance) and can be ordered directly from Ummarino’s website.

Photo from Discovery, Inc.

Post first published on March 12, 2009