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Caravaggio used photographic techniques 200 years in advance

Posted on March 10th, 2009

A researcher into the works of Renaissance painter Caravaggio claims that he used photgraphic techniques hundreds of years before the invetion of photography.

He is said to have utilised revolutionary optical instruments to “photograph” his models, Roberta Lapucci, who teaches art in Florence, Italy, told AFP new agency.

The artist celebrated for his dramatic chiaroscuro (light and shadow) paintings mastered “a whole set of techniques that are the basis of photography”, she said.

The researcher said Caravaggio worked in a “darkroom” and illuminated his models through a hole in the ceiling. The image was then projected on a canvas using a lens and a mirror. Caravaggio “fixed” the image, using light-sensitive substances, for around half an hour during which he used white lead mixed with chemicals and minerals that were visible in the dark to paint the image with broad strokes, Lapucci told AFP.

One of Caravaggio’s masterpieces, the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, is at St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta. The artist fled to Malta from Rome at the beginning of the 17th Centrury and was even made a Knight of the Order of St. John before he had to flee again after getting into more trouble in Malta. However Lapucci seems to have an explanation for this behaviour.

She has hypothesised that Caravaggio used a photoluminescent powder from crushed fireflies, which was used at the time to create special effects in theatre productions.

One of the main elements of these mixtures was mercury — to which prolonged exposure can affect the central nervous system causing irritability and other symptoms — which Lapucci said would help explain Caravaggio’s notorious temper.