Caravaggio, you are my inspiration

So, I've been going mad trying to come up with a creative painting to jump onto. I've been drawing all sorts of stuff, like Elvis in my last post. Well, I would have done Elvis as my next painting, but the pose wasn't grabbing me, it wasn't creative enough. In an interesting turn of events, a friend was looking for a print of a Caravaggio painting, The Beheading of St. John the Baptist. I did a Google search to find where to get a print, and I then realized who Caravaggio was. He was a youthful and rebellious painter during the late 1500s who was known for his amazing religious paintings. He was quite the rabble rouser though, drinking, fighting, and boasting his way to his own demise if I remember correctly. Once he even used a prostitute to pose for the Assumption of Mary. That got a lot of uproar, but his works is awesome.

Anyway, I'm blabbing a bit, so I'll get back to the topic. While browsing his works, this painting of St. Jerome caught my eye:



I really love it, its so odd. For one, who transcribes the Bible from Greek and Hebrew to Latin while only wearing a blanket? Secondly, while transcribing why would you need a skull by your side, and whose skull is it anyway? I'm sure if I did some research, it would probably be a Saint's skull or something, but that's still quite disturbing. So, I've been drawing and redrawing my own interpretation of this scene. I'm really excited about it, I'll post the preliminary sketch when I finally get the pose exactly the way I want. As for St. Jerome, I want him to look crazy old and skinny like a bag of bones.

So, that's all for now. I'll probably post what I've got on the canvas in a few days probably, I need to get back to the drawing!