Homosexuality and manslaughter of Caravaggio. Sex scandals and "Holy Trinity" threesomes of Rupnik. Philandering and misogyny of Picasso. Artist and artwork – do they exist separately?
There are two origins of the question I ask myself about this impact of artist's lifestyle on their art. – The first is How the lifestyle of an artist is reflected in their artworks. And the second one – How do we perceive the works of an artist about whose life we know many "dirty" details?
In one of the classes at the art school in Florence we talked about the necessity to distance artworks from the artist’s personality. In other words, the beauty can be created by anyone – good or bad. The beauty is independent from its creator.
Knowing myself, I tend to like this point of view because it gives me much wanted ease and relief when in my case it comes to sacred art. Of course, none of us is holy and righteous, and it's ok because we are all humans, right?
Caravaggio – Homosexuality and manslaughter
As you can see, my level of tolerance is pretty high and I don't care at all who you sleep with, what you eat and what finger you use to turn the pages in a book of your life. It's true, it's your life. Just... be legal with that finger of yours to turn the pages.
The homosexuality of Caravaggio doesn't bother me at all. It even makes me kind of encouraged and happy when I see the gay sexuality in his models' poses and the spicy sensuality of male figures in his paintings.
Interestingly enough the Catholic priests whose classes I attended showed many works of Caravaggio – of course, how can you talk about the Renaissance without mentioning his works! – but never even once they said anything about him being gay. I am guessing it's the general practice of the Catholic church (which I myself am a part of) to follow the "Don't ask, don't tell" principle. I might be wrong but that's my personal observation.
The manslaughter Caravaggio is accused of, on the other hand, is something different. If he would live today and if there would be a proof of him murdering someone... I am not sure I would want to buy (if I would be able to) one of his paintings, and I would be absolutely shocked knowing that the church officials commissioned him to decorate one of church buildings.
Marko Rupnik – Sex scandals & "Holy Trinity" threesomes
I started with Caravaggio and his lifestyle and his crime of which he is accused just to remind myself that... time cures... Where are the 1500s and where we are now! This distance in time makes us look at certain things much differently.
Often the human condition is to find excuses for injustice. And for that the time is needed...
Have you heard the name of Marko Ivan Rupnik? – Probably not, right? However, he is a contemporary (alive today) well-known visual artist in Europe (Italy) who decorated many church buildings around the world and in Vatican (!!) with mosaics and paintings in a style of Orthodox-Catholic fusion.
Rupnik was born 1956 in Yugoslavia, studied art in Rome, became a Catholic priest and a member of the Jesuit order. I don't know how it usually happens – I have no experience of my own – but he managed to become close to Pope Francis.
During almost 30 – thirty! – years he was sexually and spiritually abusing women. When you search online for Holy Trinity threesome (it's when three people "in one bed" have sex ) – you will probably get Rupnik's name in the first search results.
As they say, during he was working on all those (strangely grotesque) mosaics around the world, including in the USA, Italy and Vatican, he would keep sexually abusing nuns and church parishioners... Loved, praised, cherished, probably well-paid, photographed with Pope, happy and very creative!
The only thing I would be thinking about during the mass in the church which he decorated and staring at the mosaic behind the altar is... the "Holy Trinity" threesome...
Now, let me ask the question again. – The artist and the artwork – do they exist separately? Think about it!