Giovanni Francesco Caroto was best known for his deft handling of that exquisite Veronese light. What is also evident is that he had a penchant for painting vaguely disturbing faces. Oh, sure, he'd obviously run into a Raphael Madonna at one point, but the Child's face? Distinctly un-childlike (and not a little peevish). Other faces? Sometimes *too* realistic, as if the flash had gone off unexpectedly, giving half the subjects demonic "red-eye" and catching the other half with eyes closed. He even managed to make Isabelle d'Este (a wholly handsome woman in profile, if Leonardo's sketch of her is to be believed) look square-faced with an oily T-zone.
Which leads us to this little imp. Now, I can tell you that this is an early, rare example of a child acting as children do. (Quite seriously, the whole concept of "childhood" was eons down the road, so children were usually portrayed as miniature adults during the Renaissance.) Being a mother and so somewhat familiar with children, I do like this aspect of the painting. And as an artist, I love the 16th-century evidence that we've all learned to draw our fellow humans by roughly following the same ball-rhombus-sticks method. However.
I'm unsure if he is triumphant because he's (a) drawn a figure, (b) drawn a figure on a filched piece of someone else's precious drawing paper or (c) taken some other child's drawing, and is possibly tormenting his victim by holding this just out of reach. Looking closely, I see a lighter sketch of an eyeball in profile to the figure's left, and it definitely was not drawn by a child. In fact, I'm not altogether sure this child's expression is "triumphant." We could be seeing "gloating" or even "snarky" right here. There's just something about the angle of the brows and that ever-so-slightly popping right eye that I find worrisome.
About the Show:
Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian surveys how extremely important portraiture was during the 15th- and 16th-centuries in Europe. Not only did we use it to portray every aspect of human life, portraits were also promotional pieces (for artists) and often served as heavy-hitting political propaganda. Artists' works on display include those of Raphael, Titian, Botticelli, Van Eyck, Holbein, Dürer, Lotto, Pontormo and Bellini along with many others.
Scheduled Venues:
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid: June 3-September 7, 2008
National Gallery, London: October 15, 2008-January 18, 2009