Caravaggio - Hardcover

Puglisi, Catherine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0714834165 ISBN 13: 9780714834160

Publisher: Phaidon Press Ltd, 1998

Synopsis

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) has been rescued from neglect to emerge as something of a cult figure, celebrated both for his boldly original art and for his short, violent and troubled life. Catherine Puglisi brings much research together to provide a comprehensive monograph on the artist's life and work. Caravaggio was the most innovative painter of his time, and one of the greatest artists of any age. Controversial in his own lifetime, and notorious for this arrogance and violent character, he lived the last four years of his life in exile after committing murder. Yet he was always protected by influential patrons who admired the bold realism and originality of his art. His sexually provocative nude figures and his dramatically composed and brilliantly lit religious paintings have a psychological power and an undiminished capacity to shock and disturb after almost four centuries. Recent archive research and historical investigations have produced much new information about Caravaggio and his milieu, while cleaning, technical investigation and new discoveries have literally shed light on the paintings. Making use of all this new material, Catherine Puglisi has produced a comprehensive monograph. All Caravaggio's works are discussed and illustrated in colour and full use is made of the latest documentation to present a portrait of the artist.

About this title

Review:

Catherine Puglisi's magnificent book on Michelangelo Merisi, better known simply as Caravaggio begins with Caravaggio's beguiling self-portrait as Bacchus, painted around 1594 when the artist was in his early twenties. This is then dramatically contrasted with the devastating self-portrait of the artist as the severed head of John the Baptist, painted only 15 years later in 1610, the year of Caravaggio's untimely death. These two pictures frame the incredible career of one of the most brilliant and complex of all Baroque artists, which is comprehensively analysed in Puglisi's wonderful study.

The book moves with great lucidity from Caravaggio's early success in Rome, to his exile in Malta and Sicily and his later astonishing religious paintings, undertaken in the dark years prior to his untimely death. Puglisi argues that Caravaggio was not the socially alienated painter that tradition has assumed, but that his highly innovative work took place within a deeply self-conscious awareness of contemporary developments within the composition of still life, portraiture, and devotional painting. What is so persuasive about Puglisi's argument is that, rather than diminish our sense of Caravaggio's originality, it only heightens our understanding of his brilliance in both composition and the use of light and colour. The final section of the book is particularly compelling in its account of Caravaggio's approach towards the composition of his work, as well as offering perceptive comments on the biographical assumptions which have grown up around the painter.

Throughout, Puglisi's passion for the paintings shines through; the book is beautifully produced, with nearly 200 wonderful illustrations, most in colour, a fascinating appendix of contemporary documents on the painter's life, and a checklist of all of Caravaggio's work. Caravaggio is a splendid book, which is undoubtedly destined to become the standard work in English on one of the greatest painters of Renaissance Italy. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

"Puglisi's Caravaggio is a lavishly produced book containing excellent reproductions of many of his works in situ. While it will appeal to the general reader who is interested in a survey of Caravaggio's work, the appeal for the more expert reader will be in the excellent appendix of attributed and lost works and the series of recently discovered documents on the artist."―The Art Book

"The book is worth buying for the sumptuous colour plates. These bring the drama of Caravaggio magnificently to life and ravish the eye."―Guardian

"A well-written, clear and straightforward narrative... Generously illustrated..."―Burlington Magazine

"An admirable, up-to-date and very well illustrated account."―London Review of Books

About this edition

• Publisher: Phaidon Press Ltd
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0714834165
• ISBN 13: 9780714834160
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448