Artists and their influence on film makers

The artists Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Vermeer have all influenced filmmakers over the years with their paintings. their use of lighting, framing and many other things have influenced many great films.

Caravagio

Caravagio lived in italy during the 16th century at a time where violence was just part of life. His work was very dramatic and often reflects this violent time he using normal everyday people as models for example using them to act out biblical scenes. his work is very contrasting with use of chiaroscuro(strong contrast in lighting) to draw the audiences eye to the characters or objects illuminated. the illumination often mean something like the representation of a holy person.

His influence on film can be seen in many of Martin Scorsese's films such as Mean streets and Raging bull. it can bee seen in this still of mean streets where half of the characters face is illuminated creating a strong shadow on the other half this is an example of chiaroscuro.

Rembrandt

Rembrandt was a Dutch painter during the 17th century and has also influence many filmmakers. AS with caravagio he used strong directional light likein this photo where the darkness has an almost vignette effect drawing the audiences eye to the center and the body.

Rembrant's works unlike Caravagio often depicted more every day scenes althoght not to the extent tat Vermeer did.

Vermeer

Like the other artists Vermeer uses chiaroscuro in his pictures again to make the lighter colors of the people and objects in focus although his subjects tend to be more everyday. he also was one of the first artists to use negative space in his art as shown in this picture where although the main subject is mainly to the right the artist leaves the whole scene.