I was instantly fascinated when I saw the headline yesterday: "Italians say they may have found Caravaggio bones”. After centuries of mystery, the lost painter may have been located. Researchers in the Italian coastal town of Porto Ercole have studied the remains of a man who was approximately Caravaggio’s age, who died around the same time as Caravaggio, and who had frequent contact with the lead and other metals that were commonly used in 17th century paint. The researchers have begun DNA testing to determine if the bones can be linked genetically to current residents of the town of Caravaggio who are likely relatives of the Baroque portrait painting artist. Within two weeks, we should know if the bones could be those of the painter.

The possibility of making a pilgrimage to visit the remains of the man who was a master of religious paintings, oil painting self portrait painting, and still life oil painted pictures grabbed me immediately. And then, just as quickly, a question hit me: so what?

Vincent & Theo

Starring: Tim Roth, Paul Rhys

Release: 1990

If you’ve been following this list, right now you might be thinking, “Wait, another Van Gogh movie?” Yes, Vincent & Theo (1990) traces the relationship and lives of brothers Vincent (played by Tim Roth) and Theo (played by Paul Rhys) Van Gogh, the oil portrait artist and his art dealer brother. The film follows the brothers’ turbulent but supportive relationship, as it also documents their individual struggles with mental deterioration. Where Lust for Life presented a dignified and sanitized version of this descent, Vincent & Theo is much more honest and brutal. Vincent’s mental illness is well known, but Theo also battled with mental deterioration caused by syphilis, and the film represents these struggles with a frankness that can be downright scary.

As it emphasizes the inner lives of the portrait painting artist and his brother, the film emphasizes the connection between those inner lives and artistic passion.

In the 1960's English painter, David Hockney fell right into Pop-Art. His work that initially took off was not his paintings, but photographs. While other artists used fish-eye lenses and similar tricks to take pictures of an entire room (in order to paint it), Hockney disagreed with this practice, as the image that resulted was warped. Trying for a more realistic view, he began taking multiple polaroids of a single space.

He realized that what resulted was a piece of art in itself, a patchwork narrative of the subject, another dimension to photography. He called the pieces the joiners.

In the early 60's while still in art-school Hockney had a rash of luck in meeting Andy Warhol and getting introduced to the entire pop-art crowd. He was able to sell some work and live for a year in America. But it was not New York that Hockney had set his sights on, California would be it.

Tachisme was France's answer to Abstract Expressionism in the 40's and 50's. The word Tachisme was named after the French word for stain or drip and this aesthetic statement is apparent in the paintings—which are dripping with color. The compositions look to have suddenly been splashed across the canvas, very similarly to action painting.

This style of painting also has close roots to lyrical abstraction, and like lyrical abstraction was formed as a response to the calculated, formulaic approach of geometric abstraction.

The result was fluid, spontaneous art derived from the philosophy that art should be just that. While this term is used to describe most all French or even European art during American abstract expressionism, it is strikingly different to abstract expressionism. There is a softness in Tachisme that is not present in the raw abstraction of American art.

Critics have called the art sensual, suave and only concerned with handling the beautiful. Because of this, I think that a reproduction of a Tachisme era piece of art makes a very romantic gift. Whether for a guy or girl, a birthday or a just because Tachisme captures the essence of beauty, of sensual movement and all without being too obvious or cheesy.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

Starring: Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison

Release: 1965

Through the lens of modern art history, watching The Agony and the Ecstasy is a strange experience. Centered on Michelangelo's relationship with Pope Julius II, for whom he painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the film purports to present historical accuracy, but just as often as it pleases, it disappoints. Ordinarily, I wouldn't get too offended by a filmmaker's historical revisionism, but when a film sets itself up as a historical record, it opens itself up to those criticisms. The Agony and the Ecstasy tries to blend its fictional representation into fact – so much so that the film opens with a twelve minutes documentary about Michelangelo's birth and early tutelage under Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence, showing chronological facts of his life alongside interpretations of his sculpted works. From this sort of prologue, the film transitions to footage of the marble quarries in Carrara, not as they existed in 1965 but as they existed in Michelangelo's day, and then to the plot of the film. It establishes the film as a continuation of the established facts.