Dr. Gary Radke

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) revolutionized European painting with his dramatically lit compositions. Never before had an artist made darkness such an equal partner with light, inspiring an international vogue for scenes taking place at night and in minimally lit interiors. Join Gary Radke as he explains the origins and significance of Caravaggio’s tenebrist (shadowed) style and then introduces you to his new research on the actual settings in which Caravaggio’s religious paintings were seen. Many of Caravaggio’s works must have been very challenging to decipher before the invention of electric illumination. But by considering the dynamic effects of sunlight and candle light in these spaces and collaborating with experts in computer light simulation, Radke is beginning to reconstruct an historically accurate appreciation of the light around as well as in Caravaggio’s work.