Product Description
It took a mid-twentieth century art show in Milan to rediscover this Italian artist, emblematic of the Baroque period, who lived during the second half of the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries.Michelangelo Merisi was born to a family of modest means in 1571 near Milan. At the age of thirteen, he became an apprentice of the painter Simone Peterzano, who taught him artistic techniques and the use of colours. But he was atracted by Rome, with its fast pace of life and its loose morals. In 1597, he became the protégé to a noble cardinal who assisted him in securing important orders, such as The Martyrdom of St. Matthew, but he turned many of the offers down because of the vulgarity of the subject. Rejecting mannerism in favour of realism, this artist of the Counter- Reformation restored to the saints their humanity. Paradoxically, this mystical painter gives the saints a sensuality which goes beyond veneration and opens the door to an ambiguous eroticism.

Caravaggio also experienced the taste of dishonour and prison. After the murder of Tomasi, he was condemned to exile. He died on the 18th of July 1610 as he had lived - unexpectedly, like a character in a novel, far away from his beloved Rome, on the eve of his pardon by Pope Paul V.

His work remains tremendous - both his themes and his techniques became an inspiration for Rubens, Velázquez, and Rembrandt, inspiring especially the technique of chiaroscuro, of which he was one of the precursors.

With the help of numerous colour reproductions, this book retraces the life of Caravaggio and analyses his work while illustrating the scope of his influence on the greatest artists. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A deceptive, defective product: old text, poor reproductions
This was the first Caravaggio artbook I bought, several years ago. The text is very dated, colors are untrue, and many reproductions are soaked in obliterating darkness. The book was laid out in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, apparently from third-rate source materials, and was printed in China.

The copyright page shows three 2007 dates: (1) Parkstone Press International, New York; (2)Confidential Concepts, Worldwide, USA; (3) The Royal Collection, Her Majesty... [for one painting]. There is a photographer credit for one painting, and a Metropolitan Museum of Art credit for one painting. Two translators are listed, for Witting and Patrizi.

Online research shows: (1) complaints against Parkstone for nonpayment of translators (but not specifically referring to this project). No facts emerge about Confidential Concepts. (3) Felix Witting, Professor of Art History, was born in 1873 [in 1916, he published Michelangelo de Caravaggio: eine kunsthistorische Studie, Strassburg: Heitz (83 pp)]. M. L. Patrizi, Doctor of Psychology, published for example in 1896 and 1921.

Included are long-available historical texts: Life of Caravaggio by C. P. Bellori; (b) Notizia by Mancini; (c) Curriculum Vitae of a Criminal Painter; (d) Letter from Bishop of Caserte to Cardinal Borghese.

Now that Caravaggio is a raging interest, there are a fair number of up-to-date books available. I recommend Sebastian Schutze, Caravaggio, TASCHEN, 2009, which catalogue raisonne specifies 67 paintings. If you're bewildered by the reviewers who condemn the reproductions for being "too dark," please examine the volume in a bookstore or library (always a good procedure for the cautious buyer before mail order).

A future prospect, scheduled for publication in September 2010, is publisher Skira's Caravaggio, described as comprising 25 paintings (but about 70 illustrations), each chosen by a world-class art historian and accompanied by his/her essay of appreciation.

... Read more

Product Description
Caravaggio's (ca. 1571-1610) spectacularly new way of painting was also enthusiastically received by his Dutch contemporaries and inspired them to new illustrative inventions. This catalog demonstrates how his followers in Utrecht developed a new type of musicians' portraits through the dialog with its Italian model. German text. ... Read more

Product Description
This beautiful volume traces the tumultuous life and brilliant career of this fascinating artist-rebel, offering a rich and renewed appreciation of the masterworks that still seem strikingly modern. Because his career was so short and he never established a workshop, Caravaggio and his work were largely forgotten for the three centuries following his death, despite the great fame he earned during his life, and only about fifty of his paintings are known to survive today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Caravaggio: Complete Work
Michelangelo Merisi, better known as Caravaggio (1571 - 1610), was an Italian painter who achieved great critical acclaim and controversy during his short, but prolific, career and life. His paintings were highly realistic and included dramatic use of light and shadows that heavily influenced the Baroque style that followed his life. His personal life kept him from settling in one place, having had to flee one city after another for fighting and once killing someone in a brawl. However, he continued to find patrons for his art, and turned out some of the most dramatic paintings of his age. In //Caravaggio: The Complete Works//, the emphasis is on all the known surviving pieces, reprinted in large multi-page spreads, including several fold out pages giving three pages of detailed reproduction. The extensive text places each painting in historical context with his life and the changes going on in the Church and Italian art. The first two-thirds of the book are printed on a heavy gloss paper, allowing detailed reproduction of each work, and fine blow-ups of individual elements for closer inspection. A final seventy-page catalog of all Caravaggio works reprints each in a smaller form, with a short detailed history of the piece. There are few publishers that do art books as well as Taschen, and this book is no exception to their usual standard. It is entirely in English (as opposed to some volumes that run a three language commentary throughout), and the opening sequence two-page facial reproductionsfrom several paintings sets the stage for the extensive detail that follows.

Reviewed by Ross Rojek ... Read more

Product Description
The Rizzoli Quadrifolio art series combines the most popular artists with authoritative text and a fresh, unique format destined to appeal to children and adults alike. Featuring sixteen pages that open up to four times the original size, this series allows the reader to delve into details of individual paintings or see a horizontal development in a fresco. With stunning color reproductions, expert commentary, and a revolutionary format, the Rizzoli Quadrifolios is a pioneering art series.

Following the success of Michelangelo, the Sistine Chapel and Vincent Van Gogh are two new books on artists whose work continues to inspire: Klimt and Carvaggio. Gustav Klimt's work remains widely popular today, admired for the sensual portraits of women and the signature use of gold. Gustav Klimt includes thirty-one of the Viennese artist's works, from his famous The Kiss to the vast Beethoven Frieze. Carvaggio has enjoyed renewed popularity, inspired by recent biographies investigating his fascinating life and work. He is "more fashionable today than any time since the early seventeenth-century" (New Republic, January 17, 2000). Carvaggio highlights twenty-eight paintings by the tormented Baroque master, including Judith Beheading Holofernes and the Calling of Saint Matthew.
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Customer Reviews (3)

Trying to get in touch with dealer and no success and not the only one
When I received the Caravaggio book I knew immediately that I was not satisfied.The condition was listed as "good" but the binding was ripped.I contacted Amazon immediately and was told to contact the dealer.I was given a number to call but did not reach a person, I left a written request for information about returning this book.I have not heard from them and it has been over a week.I also read a review from a different unsatisfied customer. It was BHFO books and I actually would like some help from Amazon in contacting this dealer and getting my money back.

no, that's not this book
WARNING! the editorial reviews and reader reviews on this page have nothing to do with this book! puglisi's text is a hefty phaidon paperback; the book you buy here is a slim rizzoli hardback. the quadrifolio is actually a set of folded up posters glued into a hard binding. there is a meager introduction, no critical apparatus, no captioning or text describing the paintings, no page numbering, no table of contents, no index. the reproductions themselves are not optimally color balanced, veering sometimes toward green, sometimes toward red. fine if you want it, but don't expect puglisi's magnificent volume.

Size does matter
If you can't have the real thing, get the Quadrifolio.Who would think that a book this manageable in size would unfold to reveal the huge images that it does?I don't want to go back to my average, oversized art books.This series is great for students, art-lovers, and anyone else who wants to take a closer look at fine paintings. ... Read more

Product Description
Examines the life and work of Michelangelo Caravaggio, through more than 300 of his paintings which are documented and placed in their social and historical context. This book is one of a series which explores art from the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Almost all I wanted
I purchased this book while reading "M - the Man Who BecameCaravaggio"."M" has almost no pictures and I was lookingfor a good source of his works.There is no index of works in this books,so I spent a lot of time thumbing back and forth trying to find paintings. Also, a few of the works discussed in "M" don't appear here.Ienjoyed the format in which the paintings are presented, except for acouple of instances where a detail of a painting was shown, but not thewhole painting.

Vey Useful Guide to Caravaggio's Work
The main reason why I purchased this book was to assist me in viewing this artist's complete works when reading other mainstream books about Caravaggio, namely: 'Caravaggio: A Passionate Life' and 'M' - bothexcellent books. The colour plates were lovely and each had detailed textto assist you in your studies of his work. This is a nice and easy to readguide book to this artists beautiful work. The narrative provides enoughdetail about Caravaggio's life and work to give you the basic idea but donot expect a detailed account, you will have to look elsewhere. Overallthis a quick reference guide and is well worth a look.

A little but complete book
This book is useful because, I founda wide range of information about Caravaggio (historical info, pics)in few pages.

Interesting
This is very interesting because the writer is an historic researcher ... Read more

Product Description
Caravaggio's sojourn on the island of Malta in 1607-08 is one of the most fascinating episodes in Baroque art. The painter had committed a murder in Rome in May 1606 and subsequently fled to Naples, where he soon became well-known for his gritty, naturalistic altarpieces. Suddenly, in the early summer of 1607, he decided to leave his thriving Neapolitan studio for the newly built city of Valletta, the headquarters of the Knights of Malta. The chance to obtain a knighthood and redeem himself for his Roman crime was no doubt foremost in his mind.

Written by two leading authorities in the field, this richly illustrated book tells the story of Caravaggio's voyage to Malta, his interactions with the Knights and their leader, Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt, and the magnificent paintings he made for them. Among the works he produced on the island are the Beheading of St John the Baptist - his largest and only signed picture - and the St Jerome Writing, a canvas of exceptional pyschological force.

The book presents new iconographic, technical, and stylistic analyses of all of the Maltese pictures as well as two chapters devoted to discussions of Caravaggio's importance in the history of art and the chronological problems in his late works. Based on original archival research, this study also includes an account of Caravaggio's crime in Malta, his imprisonment, and his daring escape to Sicily. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Sampling of Caravaggio's work
I am glad to have an opportunity to sample Caravaggio's work at such a bargain price.While I wouldn't want to invest in a "complete works" book without knowing more about him, this book fills that need.

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Paint
CARAVAGGIO showed early signs of the older artist:minimal decoration, such as for his sorrowful "Mary Magdalene" and his Virgin and Child stepping on a snake, and inner moral dialogue, such as reflected on the different faces within "Salome With the Head of the Baptist." Going to the emotional and psychological core worked as well with his "Amor Victorious" mocking single figure as with his complicated compositions:"Beheading of the Baptist," with all the dark-colored or soft-toned parts balanced, John's blood spelling the artist's name, and the viewer typically drawn in, this time by two prison window witnesses; "Death of the Virgin," with the dull colors of deep anguish organized around the expressive center from her hands to her face and enlivened by the overhanging red drape picking up her dress color; "Madonna del Rosario" pyramid of bottom faithful, middle Dominican mediators, and topmost Virgin with Child; and "Seven Acts of Mercy," with figures modeling behaviors around the different concepts. Giorgio Bonsanti's Scala/Riverside published book on this Lord Byron of art gives strong background for comparative reading of Simon Schama's REMBRANDT'S EYES and Arthur K Wheelock's VERMEER. The author indicates that the painter's light- and shadow-painted naturalism and realism with ordinary people and still lifes ended up behind every artistic trend in Europe, as seen by reading Michael Fried's COURBET'S REALISM, Alan Krell's MANET AND THE PAINTERS OF CONTEMPORARY LIFE, James Henry Rubin's COURBET, and Patricia Wright's MANET. ... Read more

Product Description
My sight was always good.But color now takes on even greater riches.I no longer need the bright blues and reds, which I did so delight in when I was young.I see a hundred times more beauty now in a dark brown, or the pale tints of quiet flesh.Or a ray of light across a fur or a beaten earth floor or a suit of black armor.Such colors do not distract the eye, but rather let it concentrate on my forte, the human face.There I will have my theater, there my drama, there my applause.

Peachment’s imagined Caravaggio, while still a child, overhears his parents discussing one of his sketches, and realizes he has a talent that sets him apart from the world. He leaves family and home forever to map out a solitary traveler’s life. Caravaggio became a revolutionary of his time, a rebellious and dangerous man to know, a man governed by his genius, his indiscriminate sexual appetite, and his murderous rage. He was sought far and wide in the late Renaissance world for his art, and there was a price on his head for at least one murder. This is Caravaggio’s confession, told in humorous, blasphemous, often brutal prose, which cleverly beguiles the reader into understanding the art that was so celebrated and the life that caused so much outrage.

Peachment’s Caravaggio is a gripping story of one man’s determination to grapple with the truth as he journeys through Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily, encounters lovers and enemies, endures madness, exile, and imprisonment, and faces a final showdown with the Vatican Secret Service. His account is poignant and spirited. It is an adventurous and thoroughly enthralling insight into the mind of a creative genius and the violent world that inspired his paintings.
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Customer Reviews (5)

Painters can be scary people
Caravaggio was an audacious painter of the Renaissance. He was a rage-filled man who self-destructed. The blunt prose describes historical violence with candor. Peachment provides an adventure into the mind of a creative genius. But, be warned, painters can be scary people.

Addictive Read
Unputdownable!A tasty read that updates the life of the notorious painter with modern vernacular and without compromising narrative. Had this book for years but just got around to reading it.What a delicious surprise.

Irreverent delight
Peachment led me on an engaging and entertaining adventure through Caravaggio's life. I was not the least concerned by anachronisms and inaccuracies. What I got was an "artist's impression" - and I loved it.

Do yourself a favour if you plan to read this book: get hold of a book of Caravaggio's pictures so that you can study each picture while reading "Caravaggio's" description of it. I bought Timothy Wilson-Smith's "Caravaggio" and went back and reread Peachment's book. There's great delight in comparing Wilson-Smith's formal and presumably "accurate" analysis with Peachment's ("Caravaggio's") irreverent possibly inaccurate account.

Bulldozing Art History
I picked this book up in an art museum gift shop during a recent exhibit on Caravaggio.I finally abandoned the book halfway through because of small inaccuracies that to me became extremely irritating.I'm all for a little revisionist history and poetic license in fiction, but seeing as the story is supposed to be told by Caravaggio himself, certain passages did not ring true.For example, indicating that a neighborhood in Malta looked like it had been "bulldozed" (in 1600?-- the current sense of a machine for clearing or leveling came into usage around 1930), the use of the pejorative "frog" for Frenchmen (probably in use since 1850), andhis account of entering Rome, "I [Caravaggio] entered Rome from the north, through serious bandit country and starving farms, and then past Cinecitta, where I later used to go and join Federico, and help him indulge his taste for good life..."Cinecitta (literally "cinema city") was established in 1937 to promote the Italian film industry. References to Federico (Fellini) and the "good life" = La Dolce Vita might be clever from the author's viewpoint, but it destroyed credibility with this reader who believes that the language in a period novel should ring true (even though admittedly Caravaggio was not anglophone) and historical accuracy should be respected.I recommend you find another account of Caravaggio's fascinating life.

Caravaggio in the Raw
Caravaggio was in many ways a "raw" human being, and Peachment's novel of the painter's life reflects this aspect of his subject: if this novel were a movie, it would be rated "X" for language, sex, and violence. The narrator of the novel is Caravaggio himself, who retells his life - or rather, I must say, Peachment's fantasy of his life - in an extended address to the reader. Mystery, rage, painting, murder, alienation, anddebauchery are all grist for the novelist's mill. Baudelaire would have loved it.

Peachment is a new novelist, but an experienced arts writer, and we should not underestimate him. In the course of his narrative, the author describes every one of Caravaggio's known paintings, and usually in a way which I found interesting and even illuminating. He emphasizes always the circumstantial and concrete, rather than the "aesthetic," aspects of the works; indeed, the most important chapter of this book describes an incident in which the painter destroys one of his canvases, in rage against the intellectuals and aesthetes who love his art for all the wrong reasons. It's a valuable perspective, and one which we all can learn from.

On the other hand: Peachment's writing is episodic, with awkward transitions between short chapters; there is repetition, ranting and raving, and pure fantasy; it seems a very one-sided portrait, even for a novelist, of Caravaggio the artist and the man. On the whole, while I appreciated what Peachment was trying to do, I felt somewhat distanced from the book, even as I was turning its pages. I'm glad that I read it, and feel that it had some valuable insights to offer, but somehow I could not love it; perhaps those who knew Caravaggio, in his lifetime, felt the same way! ... Read more

Product Description
This exhibition at Boston College's McMullen Museum of Art (February-May 1999) takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying the style, subject matter, and functions of religious art in Italy between 1580-1680. The conceptual centerpiece of the exhibition is Caravaggio's recently rediscovered The Taking of Christ. The catalogue reproduces in color all of the paintings in the exhibition and includes a collection of essays that analyze how some of the period's most important artistic, religious, and social concerns are encapsulated within the various images.

Contributors include Franco Mormando (Exhibition Organizer and Catalogue Editor), Gauvin Bailey, Noel Barber, Sergio Benedetti, Pamela Jones, John W. O'Malley, John Varriano, Josephine von Henneberg, and Thomas Worcester. ... Read more