Caravaggio - Softcover

Hibbard, Howard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0500274916 ISBN 13: 9780500274910

Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1989

Synopsis

Caravaggio was one of the most important Italian painters of the 17th century. He was, in fact, the wellspring of Baroque painting. In Hibbard's words, Caravaggio's paintings "speak to us more personally and more poignantly than any others of the time". In this study, Howard Hibbard evaluates the work of Caravaggio: notorious as a painter-assassin, hailed by many as an original interpreter of the scriptures, a man whose exploration of nature has been likened to that of Galileo.

About this title

Review:

"The best general monograph.... As in his earlier studies on Michelangelo and Bernini, Hibbard set out to evaluate the work of a great master for a wide audience, without compromising scholarly standards.... Hibbard's corpus of authentic works is consistently convincing."
-- Richard Spear, "The Burlington Magazine"

"This is the one book on Caravaggio that no one will be able to do without.... There are splendid things in Hibbard's book, perceptive and moving, quite apart from close and illuminating reading of the biographical evidence.... Nothing else in the literature is so continuously enjoyable as well as useful."
-- Lawrence Gowing, "Times Literary Supplement"

"Admirable.... This seems bound to remain the standard book on a great and enthralling artist. It is hard to imagine a better one, though it is sure to stimulate fresh and perhaps antagonistic interpretations. The painting of Caravaggio is studied in relation to its historical background, artistic sources, patronage, and his own temperament. Psychoanalytical hypotheses are suggested when plausible but never pressed too hard."
-- Francis Haskell, "New York Review of Books"

"Hibbard has answered a serious need...with remarkable thoroughness, critical balance...with an offering of original insights, and with an enviable clarity and ease in presentation. The book is well illustrated and indexed, and contains transcriptions and translations of early biographies of Caravaggio and a section of notes on the illustrations that could almost be called a catalogue raisonne. Everyone interested in Caravaggio, at any level, will prize it. Highly recommended."
-- "Choice"

From the Back Cover:

Caravaggio is the most arresting European painter of the years around 1600. Although he died in 1610, in his thirty-ninth year, he is often considered the most important Italian painter of the entire seventeenth century. He is also notorious as a painter-assassin: he killed a man in 1606, and a similar crime was rumored in his youth. Caravaggio's painting speak to us more personally and more poignantly than any others of the time. We meet him over the gulf of centuries, not as a commanding and admirable historical figure like Annibale Carracci, but as an artist who somehow cut through the artistic conventions of his time right down to the universal blood and bone of life.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0500274916
• ISBN 13: 9780500274910
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 404