Caravaggio una vida sagrada y profana

by Andrew Graham-Dixon

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio vivió la más oscura y peligrosa vida de entre los grandes maestros de la pintura. Los ambientes de Milán, Roma y Nápoles en los que Caravaggio se movió, y que Andrew Graham-Dixon describe magníficamente en este libro, son los de los cardenales y las prostitutas, los de la oración y la violencia. En las calles que circundaban iglesias y palacios, las peleas y los duelos eran moneda común. En una de estas disputas, el impetuoso Caravaggio mató a otro hombre y tuvo que huir a Nápoles y luego a Malta, donde escapó de prisión tras verse envuelto en otro episodio violento. Él mismo fue víctima de un intento de asesinato en Nápoles tiempo después. Murió mientras regresaba a Roma en busca del perdón papal para sus crímenes. Tenía 38 años.

Genres: Art, Biography, History, Nonfiction, Art History, Italy, Biography Memoir

584 pages, Hardcover

First published September 12, 2011

About the author

Andrew Graham-Dixon has presented six landmark series on art for the BBC, including the acclaimed A History of British Art, Renaissance and Art of Eternity, as well as numerous individual documentaries on art and artists. For more than twenty years he has published a weekly column on art, first in the Independent and, more recently, in the Sunday Telegraph. He has written a number of acclaimed books, on subjects ranging from medieval painting and sculpture to the art of the present, including Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane, Art: The Definitive Visual Guide, and Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel.

Reviews

[Hanneke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful biography! Perhaps 'a life history' is a better word, as Caravaggio remains an obscure person. The only written records available are court records relating to his almost weekly arrests for insult and violent behaviour. There are some letters reporting on his whereabouts and letters requesting the status of commissions granted to him, but never a letter from Caravaggio himself or people close to him.

It was great to have Graham-Dixon show us Caravaggio's paintings in great detail and with such sensitivity. He sometimes takes an entire chapter to describe a single painting. I especially liked his views regarding the exact moment at which Caravaggio chose to depict an action in a story, as his moment of choice was considered pretty unconventional and rebellious at that time. Furthermore, he tells us who the models were, where the clothes and props came from, how Caravaggio arranges the light and anything else which is of interest when viewing that particular painting. We further learn who commissioned the painting, whether it survived or was lost (and how) and where it is presenly located. The revealing of a new painting of Caravaggio was much anticipated and people flocked to view it. They would often be astonished and sometimes scandalized. There were quite a few paintings rejected by churches, which commissioned a painting of a particular scene from the bible on the ground that the resulting picture was too sacrilegious as it showed, for example, Maria with a too deep cleaverige or the apostels as rugged farmers in torn clothes. Interestingly enough, a few were rejected because Maria or the saints were painted with dirty naked feet. These rejected paintings were immediately snapped up by the rich and noble families who all coveted a Caravaggio painting. Punky guy as he might have been, he was the best painter of the post-Renaissance and people stood in awe looking at his work.

Caravaggio sounds like a maniac, patrolling the dark streets of Rome in the small hours of the night, sword and dagger at the ready. You could say he was always 'cruising for a bruising'. The course of his life was dictated by his violence and the unruly company he kept. He dies an early death due to injuries inflicted by a vengeful attack. It is not surprising that it is unknown who attacked him. He stays an obscure person till the end.

Greatly recommended when you like Caravaggio's work!

Addendum Oct 21, 2019:
I just finished Francine Prose's - 'Caravaggio' and can recommend her biography as well. Francine Prose takes a more personal and emotional view on Caravaggio's work than Andrew Graham-Dixon plus has some more interesting details on his life. Her biography is a quick read, the size of an essay and has no pictures to illustrate her remarks.

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a biography of a gifted artist who unfortunately also possessed a proud and difficult personality that got him into frequent trouble with the law. Ironically, much of what is known about Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610) comes to us from the criminal archives that document his frequent arrests and various depositions in legal interrogations. Of course his paintings are also a permanent record of his life's work as is also the milieus, both churchy and raunchy, within which he lived that offers a fairly complete biography of the sort of life he lived.

His early career was influenced by the resurgent Counter Reformation Catholic church that sought a style of art to counter the threat of Protestantism. Caravaggio is generally credited with being part of the early Baroque movement. Caravaggio's innovation was a radical naturalism that combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, use of chiaroscuro which came to be known as tenebrism (the shift from light to dark with little intermediate value).

The author pieces together circumstantial evidence to suggest that Caravaggio may have had a second avocation of pimping. If so it helps to explain why he repeatedly is apprehended in the middle of the night prowling the streets (curfew violation) and armed with sword and dagger (unlawful without a license).

I was interested to learn that Orazio Gentileschi was an acquaintance of Caravaggio's. I've listened to the book The Passion of Artemisia which is a historical novel about Artemisia Gentileschi, the daughter of Orazio. Caravaggio was NOT involved in the notorious trial regarding the rape of Artemisia; however an excerpt from the trial records is included in this book in order to provide background information and an example of the dangers found in Rome in those days.

The artist community in the city of Rome of that era was filled with rivalries and jealousies that tended to lead to situations of slander and insult. In retrospect it's almost predictable that an environment such as this would lead to homicide, and indeed it did. Caravaggio killed a man and fled the city to escape prosecution. The story at the time was that it resulted from an argument about a tennis game. The author sites evidence which indicates that it was actually a duel with swords involving two combatants, two seconds (who became involved in the fighting), and four witnesses (two on each side). The cover story of a tennis game was used to avoid the laws against dueling.

As an exile from Rome Caravaggio traveled to Naples and then Malta. He was imprisoned in Malta for rowdy behavior and made a miraculous escape, the details of which are unknown. He escaped as a fugitive back to Sicily and then back to Naples where a gang, probably sent from Malta, attacked him, held in down, and carved cuts on his face to create scars. In the author's opinion this cutting of the face was intended as payback for an insult given by Caravaggio to somebody from Malta. (The author, who seems quite sure of himself, provides the name of the person who had Caravaggio tracked down.)

Caravaggio painted two paintings after being attacked, and they show signs of being physically compromised.

...the brushwork is so broad, the definition of forms so unsure, that the painter seems to have fallen prey to some form of essential tremor, an uncontrollable shaking of the hands, as well as perhaps to damage of the eyes.

Caravaggio's reputation as an accomplished painter enabled him to win prestigious and well-paid commissions at all the places he visited after fleeing Malta even though he was a fugitive and probably knew that he was being tracked by Maltese agents.

He died, reportedly due to a fever, in 1610 during a trip back to Rome where he expected to receive a pardon arranged by powerful Roman friends. It was from this later part of his life that he reportedly refused holy water at a church "on the grounds that it was only good for washing away venial sins. 'Mine are all mortal,' were Caravaggio's words, hardly those of a man untroubled by questions of salvation or damnation."

This book was published too early to include information about the recent findings of an excavated grave in Italy that is likely to be that of Caravaggio's. Bones in the grave contained high lead levels which is probably related to the paints used at the time which contained high amounts of lead salts. Thus it is likely that some of Caravaggio's violent behavior was caused by lead poisoning.

This is a big book (514 pages including Notes, Further Reading, and Index) that thoroughly covers the subject. Insightful commentary is provided in the book for almost all of the surviving works of Caravaggio. I believe these descriptions would be constructive reading for anyone who anticipates visiting a museum where the paintings are on display.

The rest of this review is focused on specific paintings by Caravaggio that I found to be of special interest:

One reason for my interest in this book is the fact that the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, located in Kansas City near where I live, contains within its collection the painting St John the Baptist by Caravaggio.

St John the Baptist by Caravaggio
(Nelson Atkins Museum of Art)

The following excerpt is what this book had to say about the above painting. I have included it here so I can review it prior to my next visit to the museum.

It was probably in the summer of 1604, between fights, that Caravaggio painted the hauntingly intense St John the Baptist now in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Kansas City. The picture was almost certainly painted for the Genoese banker Ottavio Costa. There is an early copy in the church of the Oratory of the Confraternity of Conscente, in Liguria, which was a fief of the Costa dynasty. The family had paid for the building of the church, so it may be that Caravaggio's painting was originally destined for its high altar, and subsequently replaced by the copy for reasons unknown. Perhaps Ottavio Costa was so impressed by the work when he saw it that he decided to keep it for his art collection in Rome.

The picture is very different to the St John the Baptist painted for Ciriaco Mattei a couple of years before. As in the earlier painting, the saint occupies an unusually lush desert wilderness. Dock leaves grow in profusion at his feet. But he is no longer an ecstatic, laughing boy. He has become a melancholy adolescent, glowering in his solitude. Clothed in animal furs and swathed in folds of blood-red drapery, he clutches a simple reed cross for solace as he broods on the errors and miseries of mankind. The chiaroscuro is eerily extreme: there is a pale cast to the light, which is possibly intended to evoke moonbeams, but the contrasts are so strong and the shadows so deep that the boy looks as though lit by a flash of lightning. This dark but glowing painting is one of Caravaggio's most spectacular creations. It is also a reticent and introverted work—a vision of a saint who looks away, to one side, rather than meeting the beholder's eye. This second St John is moodily withdrawn, lost in his own world-despising thoughts. The picture might almost be a portrait of Caravaggio's own dark state of mind, his gloomy hostility and growing sense of isolation during this period of his life. (pg 277-278)

The following excerpt from the book tells of one occasion when Caravaggio's work was rejected because it portrayed St Matthew with too much appearance of a poor peasant instead of an important saint of the church. I happen to be sympathetic with Caravaggio's preference to show the followers of Jesus as being plain and poor folk.

Despite or more likely because of its brusque singularity Caravaggio's picture 'pleased nobody', according to Baglione. The St Matthew was rejected as soon as it was delivered. Bellori gave the fullest account of events: 'Here something happened that greatly upset Caravaggio with respect to his reputation. After he had finished the central picture of St Matthew and installed it on the altar, the priests took it down, saying that the figure with its legs grossed and its feet rudely exposed to the public had neither decorum nor the appearance of a saint. That was, of course, precisely Caravaggio's point: Christ and his followers looked a lot more like beggars than cardinals. But the decision of Mathieu Cointrel's executors ... was final. Saving Caravaggio's blushes, Vincenzo Giustiniani took the painting of St Matthew for his own collection. .... Giustiniani also prevailed on the congregation of San Luigi dei Francesi to allow the painter to try again.

The resulting picture, his second version of St Matthew and the Angel, was accepted without demur. ... The character of the painting, and indeed the very fact that it was commissioned at all, suggests that those in charge of the commission had few doubts about the painter's ability. As far as they were concerned, it was merely his taste, and the tenor of his piety, that was suspect: if he was given the right instruction, these could easily be amended. (pg 236-237)

Here's the first version of St Matthew and the Angel:


Here's the second version of St Matthew and the Angel:


Caravaggio had some additional paintings rejected because of their realism. In one case Mary is shown with cleavage, and in another painting titled "Death of the Virgin" she is shown too dead. (An ascension scene was preferred.)

[Dax · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable biography. Caravaggio liked to live life in the shadows (as reflected in his artwork), so the only sources Graham-Dixon has to work with for his book are court records from Caravaggio's trouble-making and the occasional letter mentioning the artist or his commissions. Graham-Dixon pieces the puzzles of Caravaggio's life together using those primary sources, but also utilizes his interpretations of the artist's work to understand Caravaggio's emotional state at the time. It is an astounding method to bring Caravaggio to life. It allows the reader to not only learn about what the artist did, but also understand why he acted and painted the way he did.

Graham-Dixon is clearly passionate about Caravaggio's work as well. I found myself staring at the painting plates (there are about 100 of them provided in the book) after reading the authors analysis of the work. I am no art historian, but even a layman such as myself can appreciate Graham-Dixon's comments on the paintings.

As to Caravaggio himself, the subtitle of 'A Life Sacred and Profane' could not be more apt. No man was given more opportunities to succeed, and yet Caravaggio's sense of pride and lack of self control continually placed himself in danger (or in prison). Duels, assaults, prison escapes, Caravaggio certainly did not live a boring life. But the untimely death and the unmarked grave, while certainly a tragic ending of an extraordinary life, seems strangely appropriate for a man dedicated to realism in his art and who clashed with the class system of late Renaissance Italy

Lastly, Graham-Dixon's closing remarks on Caravaggio's lasting impact on art is uplifting. It is comforting to know that a talent like Caravaggio has not been forgotten.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The messy story of what happened to Caravaggio's last paintings is also a microcosm of his afterlife, and a parable illustrating his singularity as a painter. He had always been an outsider, a troublemaker, a difficult and dangerous man. Yet his art was so compelling, so original, so unforgettable, that people were simply transfixed by it. They fought to look at it, gathering in the hundreds every time a new altarpiece was unveiled, and they fought to acquire it, even though everything else about Caravaggio -- his terseness, his weird dress sense, his violence, his sexual reputation, his unerring gift for getting into trouble -- seemed so disconcerting and strange."

This from the final pages of Graham-Dixon's biography about sums up the painter, but what really intrigued me was how little training Caravaggio had, how little help he had in the studio, how ill-equipped his studio was, in fact. And he did it his way -- populating even religious paintings not with unrealistic idealizations but with naturalistic people and locations from his own day, the models usually being the poor, his friends, and local prostitutes. Caravaggio was more comfortable on the seamy side of the street, for this was his milieu.

In short, Caravaggio was every artist's dream -- an almost feral talent who forced people to pay attention to him by sheer dint of will and raw talent, which he developed and refined over time. A master of light and dark (chiaroscuro), he shook things up on his canvases, then went out and shook things up in dark alleys. Alas, it came at a cost. The man died at age 38 after being attacked by one group of his many enemies. Just think of the unpainted paintings due to this loss!

Me, I liked learning about Caravaggio, of course, and enjoyed Graham-Dixon's exacting descriptions of each painting (included with color plates), but I really enjoyed learning about turn-of-the-century Rome and Italy (turn = 16th to 17th). Young bucks roaming the streets behaved in the same way we see many gangs behave today, only the Italians had a thing for shaming enemies with wounds -- to the hand, to the face (such as happened to Caravaggio), to the groin. So yes, it brought the Capulets and Montagues of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet to mind, where swordplay was the dangerous way ("A scratch, a scratch!" Mercutio says of his death wound).

There's more than a little history tucked in, too. I especially liked learning about the crack troops of 16th- 17th century Christendom, the hard core Order of St. John, situated on the bloody rock of Malta, the last bulwark against Turks bent on invading Italy.

Caravaggio's world and welcome to it, in other words. Long and at times hampered by side tracks that might have been cut, the book nevertheless accomplishes what it sets out to do, bring a man to life despite the dearth of primary sources.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

(This review originally appeared at the Washington Independent Review of Books)

Being a tortured rock star is tough in any century. Case in point: Michaelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, the brilliant, brooding, bad boy of the 16th-century art world, whose rise to fame in his early 20s seemed propelled as much by sheer force of will as it was talent, and whose fall before the age of 40 makes for a spectacularly self-destructive tragedy worthy of Shakespeare — or at least of Sid Vicious, Jim Morrison, Keith Moon and countless other hard-living rock-and-rollers.

In his scholarly but surprisingly spunky biography, Graham-Dixon follows Caravaggio on the roller coaster ride that was the artist’s life, starting with his rise from obscurity in Milan, to his early success in Rome, where his eye for stark realism and creative use of light and shadows brought him admiration and fame, though he would still, to his annoyance, be regarded as something of a novelty act. From those heights, it’s an equally rapid race through the downward spiral of the murder rap that sends the painter on the run through Malta (where he’s arrested and jailed), then Naples (where an ambush leaves him severely wounded) and finally to Porto Ercole, where he dies under mysterious circumstances. These are the basics — but given that the paper trail left by the painter as he slouched and swashbuckled his way across Italy is either nonexistent or invisible, Graham-Dixon, at times, has to adopt the tones of a detective novelist as he scours one obscure document after another, uncovering criminal depositions, buried letters and coroner reports to bring the painter and his world to vivid life.

Graham-Dixon carefully lays down Caravaggio’s upbringing and background, placing the painter in the context of late 16th-century Milan where the humorless, stridently devout archbishop of Milan, Carlo Borromeo, was determined to enforce good and pious behavior. Borromeo believed in a Christ incarnate, insisting that his subjects visualize a living, breathing Christ in the hope that doing so would make his suffering and sacrifices that much more graphic and glorious. Further, the archbishop was also a fan of the sacro monte — literally the “sacred mountain,” a string of small chapels featuring three-dimensional scenes from the Bible that visitors strolled through and gawked at like a Disney attraction. These displays were often intentionally shocking — the floor of one chapel appeared to have dismembered babies strewn across it — but such religious showcases were unavoidable in Caravaggio’s formative years, which goes a long way toward explaining how the almost defiantly non-religious Caravaggio could be so familiar with religious imagery and Biblical allusions.

As a young man, Caravaggio was apprenticed to the “dull and cautious” painter Simone Peterzano, who provided the artist not so much with instruction on how to paint, but more of an example of how not to do it. In 1592, Caravaggio headed for Rome where he began producing increasingly sophisticated and highly realistic paintings, even as he continued to behave badly, falling in with a crowd of shady young men who encouraged his fighting, whoring and skulking about. Yet, his undeniable talent ensured him admirers, benefactors and protectors happy to look the other way — or bribe an official or two — to keep the young man painting.

Even in his earliest works, Caravaggio had a showman’s knack for storytelling. His paintings of coy fortune tellers stealing rings off the finger of a mark, or of crooked card players fleecing unsuspecting well-to-do young men are almost like snapshots of singular moments in time, telling a complete story in a single image and catching the particular event at its most dramatic moment. The buzz generated from these slice-of-life paintings led to commissions for chamber pieces and, eventually, altarpieces and other religious paintings — a genre at which the swaggering, profane Caravaggio would excel.

For Caravaggio — raised on Borreomeo’s steady diet of a visualized Christ and the vivid sacro monte — Christ, his disciples and the Virgin Mary had weight and heft. There would be no Christ or Mary ascending to heaven on feathery clouds; instead, Christ plods along on dirty, bare feet, gesturing for St. Matthew as he leans over a counting table. A real prostitute poses for a dying Virgin Mary as balding disciples sob around her. The dead Christ in “The Entombment of Christ” lolls heavily in the arms of St. John, whose fingers inadvertently tear open the savior’s wounds. And in each, Caravaggio lights his figures dramatically against nearly pitch black backgrounds, almost literally highlighting the moment and forcing the viewer to pause and reflect — and, perhaps, move them to penance, as Borromeo might have hoped of viewers of the sacro monte.

And yet, the realism and sophistication of Caravaggio’s paintings proved too much for many tastes at the time. Like a painterly Mozart surrounded by a sea of dabbling Salieris, Caravaggio saw many of the more prestigious commissions go to lesser artists who worked in the safer, more traditional styles. Graham-Dixon, an art critic and historian, is dexterous in his discussion of Caravaggio’s art, reading neither too much nor too little into the paintings. While he studies their dramatic composition, he won’t usually bother you with heavy-handed symbolism — apart from explaining how he thinks the loutish Caravaggio may have been aware of such highbrow symbolism in the first place.

Graham-Dixon also puts Caravaggio’s art in context of other paintings at the time, showing how other artists interpreted similar themes — and when you see Caravaggio’s version of “The Death of the Virgin” jammed up against the mundane altarpiece that replaced it, you’ll understand why its rejection may have ignited Caravaggio’s already notorious temper (and prompted him to aim a horse’s ass in one of his own pieces directly at the replacement painting). Seething, Caravaggio eventually ends up taking part in a duel in which a hotheaded pimp named Ranuccio Tomassoni is critically wounded — and Graham-Dixon has uncovered new evidence which he believes suggests a far more salacious motivation for the fight, which prior biographers have attributed to a spontaneous dust-up over a tennis match. Graham-Dixon argues convincingly that the fight was likely provoked by a slur aimed at Tomassoni’s wife, who may or may not have been one of Tomassoni’s prostitutes.

From here, it’s all sadly and inescapably downhill for Caravaggio for the last four years of his life — though he continues, miraculously, to keep right on painting. With a price on his head, he hustles to Malta, where he becomes one of the favored Knights of Malta and tries to sweet talk his way into forgiveness by producing portraits of some of the leading members of the court. Later, he sends a potential benefactor a painting of David with the head of Goliath, substituting his own head for the slain giant — a final plea for a clemency that never arrives. Sadly, his temper again gets the best of him: Caravaggio kills another man, lands in prison, then, tantalizingly, somehow pulls off a daring escape of which no details are known. Hiding out in Naples in 1609, he’s ambushed, perhaps in revenge for his most recent murder, yet shakily completes two more paintings before dying under mysterious — or at least confusing — circumstances at the age of 38. And here again, Graham-Dixon carefully dissects conflicting stories of the painter’s death, assessing motivations, weather and the speed of messengers to determine what may have really happened.

In his perhaps too-brief aftermath and epilogue, Graham-Dixon traces the inevitable rise of Caravaggio’s reputation, finding his influence in remarkable places — including the films of Martin Scorsese, who admits he aspired “to do Jesus like Caravaggio” in “The Last Temptation of Christ.” Not a bad legacy for the hard-living, self-destructive genius who did so much more than just live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse.

[Paul Ataua · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a totally infuriating book. After a couple of mentions of other biographies of Caravaggio, the author took us on a lengthy trip through the sixteenth century covering the reformation, the counter reformation, the plague, and a series of characters like Borromeo without really mentioning Caravaggio hardly at all. However interesting that all was, it might have been better working into it all through Caravaggio’s life rather than heaping it all up front. The book got better when it finally worked its way through the painters artwork — heaven! Having said that I felt the ‘sacred and profane’ approach a little shallow and had hoped for more depth. The real positive of the book was that it rekindled my interest in the artist and prodded me into buying Schütze’s ‘Caravaggio:The Complete Works’. Watch this space!

[Leftbanker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of reviews that I read on Goodreads are little more than an unlettered synopsis of the book with nothing in the way of consideration by the reviewer. Like they have simply regurgitated the snippet on the back cover. I’m afraid that this will be the case for my review of this biography, but I have my reasons. I want to be able to refer to this book in the future. I’m writing something the involves the life of Caravaggio and I’ll want to recall the significant events of his life which I’ve laid out here.

Even after reading this excellent biography, I know little more about Caravaggio than I did before. This isn’t a criticism of the book, it’s just that there wasn’t much written about the artist. What the author of this biography does, and does very well, is to illuminate everything around the artist. We learn about his contemporaries and the history of the times. He also has a lot of wonderful commentary about Caravaggio’s work.

“On 28 May 1606 Caravaggio killed his enemy in a swordfight.”

Although he takes many pages to do it, the author is unable to shed much new light of this famous chapter in the life of the artist which forced him to get the fuck out of Dodge, or Rome in his case. He does insist that the row wasn’t over a tennis match, but a prearranged duel, something illegal in papal Rome and punishable by death. The ruse of an argument over a tennis match used as a cover-up of the crime. The tennis court was also a place where fencing was practiced.

Here is just one example of how the author fleshes out a wonderful moment of his biography from a description and interpretation of a single painting:

Naples at the start of the seventeenth century was the largest city in southern Europe. Its population was 300,000, three times that of Rome, and would soon grow to half a million.

I knew this before after doing some research on Caravaggio two years ago for something I was writing, but reading it again still astounds me. Maybe when I come across this fact for the third time I won’t be surprised.

‘Nowhere in the world,’ wrote Capaccio ( Giulio Cesare Capaccio, long-time secretary of administration in Naples), ‘is there anything so obtrusive and undisciplined, the result of the mixture and confusion of so many races . . . miserable, beggarly and mercenary folk of a kind such as to undermine the wisest constitution of the best of republics, the dregs of humanity, who have been at the bottom of all the tumult and uprisings in the city and cannot be restrained otherwise than by the gallows.’ He likened the Neapolitan crowd to a constant swarm of insects. Wherever he went, he heard ‘a murmuring . . . as if it were the buzzing of bees’.

From this exposition on the state of Naples at the beginning of the 17th century, the author explains how this chaos shaped Caravaggio’s work in The Seven Acts of Mercy:

It was traditional to represent each of the acts separately. But, having been asked to combine them all in one picture, Caravaggio turned an apparent handicap to his own advantage. For a dark and desperately overcrowded town, he created a dark and desperately overcrowded altarpiece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sev...

Here, the thirsty drink, the homeless are given shelter, and a sword is used not to kill a man but to put clothing on his back.

The painter’s sojourn on Malta was partly to absolve himself of his crimes in Rome as well as some inborn machismo he wanted to satiate by walking in the footsteps of the knights of the great siege there in 1565. Caravaggio received his knighthood, but he quickly cocked that up, was arrested, and escaped to Sicily. From there, he moved back briefly to Napoli.

The is no conclusive evidence about the death of the painter, but from the way he lived his life, the odds favor some form of violence at least contributed to his end.

The assault at the Osteria del Cerriglio in Naples in which four men attacked Caravaggio after he left the bordello and sliced open the painter’s face, was almost his end.

Caravaggio seems never to have fully recovered from the attack at the Osteria del Cerriglio. Crippled and perhaps partially blinded by his injuries, he went into the limbo of a long convalescence. On Christmas Day 1609, two months after the assault…

Only two paintings of his survive after the attack: The Denial of St Peter and The Martyrdom of St Ursula, his last picture.

I’ve read several different theories about the artist’s death. I like the confidence with which the author lays out his history of the event:

In truth, the supposed mystery of Caravaggio’s death is nothing of the kind. Conspiracy theories are a distraction. Caravaggio’s true fate was dark and dramatic enough to need no elaboration or reinvention. His last journey can now be clearly reconstructed, the cause of his death understood.

This is what happened…

Maybe he should have written, “This is what happened as far as modern scholarship has determined,” or something to that effect. Among his many talents, Andrew Graham-Dixon is quite a remarkable detective, as shown in this passage:

In Porto Ercole, probably on 18 or 19 July, Caravaggio died…His death was not recorded in the parish records. This has been regarded as a sinister omission by the conspiracy theorists. But there is an unsinister explanation for it. Porto Ercole’s only priest was in dispute with the town fathers and on strike at the time. No deaths were recorded there in the summer of 1610.

[Nel · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up.
so far i haven't had much luck with artist bios it seems.

caravaggio didnt leave much of a paper trail (unless we count court archives) and maybe its for the best bcs it seems he was a bit of a poopey head.
i feel like when handling cryptic figures like that less is better but this bio takes the opposite approach - not that it has a lot to go on all the same, so instead we are treated to big swatches of barely relevant info. and when the author is not talking about his paintings (most of it is speculation cuz again, caravaggio left nothing in a way of his thoughts), hes talking about caravaggio's knocking someone's teeth out in the dark of night but in the most boring manner possible.

so eh.

and to sign off, here is john the baptist lounging in red drapes.

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knowing little about Caravaggio before I read this book, I was in no position to assess the weight of Graham-Dixon's arguments. However, he writes well, and I enjoyed reading this book.

Writing about art, like writing about music, can be very hard to pull off — it is almost like translation, trying to describe one mode of expression through another. This author writes about art and makes it look easy.

My only little quibble is that I wished the plates were cross-referenced to the text, so I didn't have to go hunting and hope to find them.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love art history because it seems very interactive to me. I often have the painting being discussed pulled up on my phone, so while the author describes specific moments and strokes in the painting, I can also be studying it in detail. When you read a book specifically about one artist, if it is any good, you will learn new ways to admire and study their paintings- and this book was no exception. I had always learned more about the profane interpretations of Caravaggio's art, but this was the first time that I learned about the strict religious rule of Borromeo that he lived under as a child, a religious framework that would be present in every aspect of his work from the dirty feet of the saints in the paintings to the sculpture like positions that those represented in his paintings took. Yes, he may have used a prostitute as a model for the Virgin Mary, but more importantly he made her a woman full of empathy and pain, suffering, and infallible love on the canvas, placed her hand gently over her stomach as she wraps her body protectively around the christ-child, and this posturing, with dirt under the nails, and blush of motherhood on her cheeks, was something that the peasants prostrating themselves before the altarpiece could understand. He brought sacred art to the illiterate, painted it FOR the illiterate, and involved the masses in the each scene, as though they had walked into the moment in the middle of the action. It is beautiful.

What bumped this book from a 4 to a 5 was Graham-Dixon's superb review at the end of the effect Caravaggio had on the world, not just during his time, but to modern day cinema. Martin Scorsese has spoken at length at how his work in cinema has been influenced by Caravaggio, the idea of making the profane sacred, the flashes of light, and the framing of a single moment. I also appreciated Graham-Dixon's epilogue, where he discussed not only what happened to the other painters that had featured in Caravaggio's escapades, but also what happened to Fillide, the prostitute that was the Virgin Mary on more than one occasion.

But perhaps most importantly to would-be scholars and historians is that Graham-Dixon does nothing to hide the labor of pouring through the very intricate legal records left behind by the Church and Rome. The possible interpretations of the court documents, the puzzling pieces left behind (especially when people went about striking names from books), the xrays done on the papers to reveal whats hidden. Its amazing work, and I love when historians show it because while they are getting paid, its still very much a labor of love.

An absolutely stellar biography.

PS Caravaggio basically swaggered around half the time like he was in West Side story. It was hard to take seriously that these artists were out stabbing each other in the street, raiding each others houses, and calling one another out in the middle of church to fight like some drunk frat boys.

[Alarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading 445 pages about Caravaggio, I expected to say this book is more than I ever wanted to know about the artist, but it was a bit disappointing to me for just the opposite reason. Because Caravaggio died in 1610 and didn't leave behind diaries and correspondence, we actually know too little about the man beyond court records. The great genius's life, like his paintings, was a contrast in dark and light. He had a quick temper and a violent streak. As a result, he frequently wound up in court or even prison. Fortunately, he had generous patrons and protectors who wanted to keep him free and busy with art commissions. It's hard to imagine how Caravaggio could have been so prolific while continually getting in trouble with the law.

With too little facts to work with, I'd have preferred for Graham-Dixon to have shortened his narrative and let his art commentary speak for Caravaggio. Tangents about Cardinals, neighboring countries, and politics of the time went on too long for my taste. The two things I loved best about this book were the reproductions of the paintings, including a few by the lesser artists of the time for comparison, and the cinematic potential in Caravaggio's last five years. The somewhat plodding early chapters about church reform and law made way for a wild action story.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spectacular biography in every way imaginable. The author carefully puts together the historical record to provide as complete a picture of a complex, troubled genius as is possible.

More importantly, Graham-Dixon illuminates each of Caravaggio's paintings in such clear historical, literary, and artistic detail that anyone familiar with these paintings will now see them with a depth they have never before experienced. I already know that I will come back to it again and again in anticipation of any time I am fortunate enough to view Caravaggio's work in the future. In fact, as much as I have loved each of Caravaggio's paintings that I have seen in person, I now know that I never quite appreciated the beauty and complexity of each. The chronology used to describe the paintings—the stories behind each work—now put each into a context I had never before understood. I can't wait to rediscover Caravaggio's art again after reading this book.

Graham-Dixon does not cover up any of the gritty or tragic details of Caravaggio's life, nor does he resort to tabloid sensationalism. We meet a very human Caravaggio whose brilliance is neither obscured by his troubled life experiences nor elevated to an idealized sainthood.

Too often trite jokes are made about the value of art history. I've been guilty myself of the same thing. Graham-Dixon's work will eliminate any notion of frivolity about the study of art history. This is a serious work that will live for the ages. It should become a standard for any professional or amateur student of art history. Should others follow in the footsteps set by this example, humanity will be better served.

This is a book that will remain with me for the rest of my life. If you have ever been touched by a work of art, you should read Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane. Graham-Dixon's account will stay with you long after you have finished reading it.

[J.J. Garza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Si un tipo como Locke Lamora o Nicomo Cosca hubiera sido uno de los pintores más grandes e influyentes de la historia.

La vida de Caravaggio, como nos la cuenta el historiador del arte Graham-Dixon, fue una larga serie de italianidades que parece haber ido in crescendo: sacerdotes torvos, calles sucias y apiñadas, la temible justicia papal, rivalidades entre familias nobles, rivalidades entre grandes poderes sobre la península, rivalidades entre miembros del clero, rivalidades entre bandas de truhanes, cortesanas y prostitutas, sexualidad ambigua, peleas casi a muerte por cómo se prepara la comida, pulgares mordidos, duelos en callejones oscuros, duelos en recintos deportivos, heridas para desfigurar a los enemigos, vendettas, una orden de frailes guerreros, pintar a Dios como Dios pintaría a Dios, y finalmente un final completamente digno de la más operática de las tragedias.

No le puse las cinco estrellas porque, si bien es una biografía fascinante, el hecho de tratar con una figura histórica poco documentada hace que para llenar las páginas de un libro de casi 500 páginas el autor deba añadir mucho hablando del contexto histórico. Esto es valioso en sí mismo, pero no todas las añadiduras se sienten como que no sean relleno. Otro problema viene cuando Graham-Dixon emplea un tono muy seguro de sí mismo para afirmar hipótesis que, si bien parecen lógicas y fundamentadas, a veces pecan de afirmar cosas que por lo menos por consenso otros historiadores dudan.

Esto no desmerece mucho una biografía espléndida, retacada de color histórico y de reflexiones y descripciones del arte que si uno no tiene entrenamiento formal no va a poder darse cuenta.

[Overbooked ✎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written, engaging and comprehensive biography of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, the great Italian renaissance painter famous for his dramatic effects of light and shade and intense realism.


Portrait of Caravaggio by Ottavio Leoni

Caravaggio was an intriguing and complex man, an impetuous character who kept company with whores and courtesans, always ready to engage in a fight or an argument. He quickly flared up at the merest hint of an insult and consequently was fast to draw a blade. He was an aggressive man, determined to take revenge on his adversaries whatever the cost.

A talented artist, Caravaggio was unafraid to break the mold making his own way in the Roman crowded painters market. He rejected the fashion of his era for classical idealized forms by employing an immediately recognizable lightening-strike style of painting, a powerful contrast of light and dark, and using subtle and complex symbolism in his works.


The Crucifixion of St Peter, 1600–1601


Doubting Thomas, c. 1603


Sacrifice of Isaac, 1603


St Jerome Writing, c. 1605

Graham-Dixon does an amazing job at Caravaggio’s biography and career that spanned the decades immediately before and after the year 1600. The author closely follows the artist’s steps through his turbulent life, from his humble beginnings in Lombardy to the start of his successful career in Rome. After having murdered a rival in 1606, Caravaggio is exiled from the capital and takes refuge in Naples where he establishes his fame as a talented and sought-after painter.

Unable to return to Rome, Caravaggio leaves for Malta where he becomes a knight of the Order of St. John in return for artworks commissioned by the Grand Master, but almost as soon as he is knighted, he manages to find trouble again, and lands in jail. After escaping from prison, he flees to Sicily where he works while on the run. Leaving a brothel in Naples, he is attacked and seriously injured. Eventually he arranges a pardon for his murder but he dies at Porto Ercole, on his way back to Rome.


The Entombment (detail), 1602-03


St John the Baptist (detail), c. 1604


Death of the virgin (detail), 1605


Judith beheading Holofernes (detail), c. 1597

Graham-Dixon vividly recreates the atmosphere of the period and the historical setting of each city where Caravaggio lived and immersing the reader in the local way of life. He provides well researched historical and social background as well as art criticism of Counter-Reformation Italian art, with some insightful and interesting interpretations of Caravaggio’s most famous works. The inclusion of translations of the original reports and witness statements in the archives of Roman courts on the many incidents involving Caravaggio was very interesting, they provide an illuminating perspective on Roman society as well as the painter’s personality.

The book includes a map of Italy (c. 1610) and detailed period maps of the cities where the artist was active (Milan, Rome, Naples and Valletta). The reader will also find a good number of illustrations of referred-to artworks, author’s notes and bibliography for further research, although, sadly, a timeline of the artist’s life and major works is missing.

An excellent read for me. I would highly recommended this book to people who enjoy artists’ biographies and Renaissance art lovers. 5 stars for the book, 2.5 for the narration.

About the audio version: It’s a pity that Audible didn’t bother to find someone who can narrate in good Italian, it may be excused in a book with a few Latin phrases and Italian terms here and there, but in a book set in Italy and about Italian art and history, like this one, it’s disappointing.
I doubt that Ballerini speaks fluent Italian. His pronunciation of places and famous historical characters puts strong emphasis on their names, he vacillates between sounds for double and single consonants (e.g. ss, nn, tt in Giorgio Vasari, Mario Minniti, Francesco Susinno, Buonarroti) and uses the wrong stress on words altogether (e.g. in ‘pazzia’ the accent is on the i not on the first a, in ‘Girolamo’ is on the first o not on the a, in ‘Apostoli’, on the a not the second o etc.) these are typical anglophone mistakes. His narration became distracting, tedious and even cringe-worthy at times.

Fav. Quotes:

Caravaggio lived his life as if there were only Carnival and Lent, with nothing in between.

Caravaggio did not draw because his method of composition was essentially theatrical – proto-cinematic, it might be said, because lighting was also involved. He composed by staging scenes, or fragments of scenes, that he knitted together, collage-like, on his canvas, using shadow to mask the joins.

Pictures such as the Seven Acts and The Flagellation were greeted with stunned admiration, bordering on bewilderment. They created a sensation and transformed Neapolitan painting virtually overnight. Caravaggio’s extreme chiaroscuro and his brutal sense of reality were the catalyst for the birth of a new school of tenebristic painting in Naples. And through this city at the crossroads between Italian and Spanish art, Caravaggio’s starkly powerful new style was transmitted to Spain itself.

In religion, as in so much else, Caravaggio was perhaps a man divided – torn between doubt and faith, angry rebellion and sullen obedience.

Caravaggio was putting his own memories and emotions at the heart of his work. Whatever he set out to paint – the death of a martyr, the infancy of Christ or his resurrection – he always ended up painting himself.

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book traces the tumultuous life of the late Renaissance and early Baroque Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610). The biography starts with Caravaggio’s early life in Milan, artistic apprenticeship, rise to fame in Rome, eventual downfall, and exile. It chronicles the painter's multiple brushes with the law, his involvement in violent altercations, his flight from Rome after killing a man, final years as a fugitive in Malta, Sicily, and Naples, and death at age thirty-eight.

Graham-Dixon employs a novelistic approach to biography. His prose is descriptive and engaging. The book is structured chronologically and occasionally pauses to provide a detailed analysis of a specific painting at the point it was created. Graham-Dixon's background as an art critic is evident. He describes Caravaggio’s techniques, symbolism, unusual approach to chiaroscuro lighting, and portrayals of religious figures. I found it helped me to appreciate this book more if I looked at a photo of Caravaggio’s painting as I read its detailed description.

The book examines how Caravaggio's lack of male role models, criminal tendencies, and sensitivity to perceived slights to his honor influenced his life and artworks. I particularly enjoyed the author’s ability to balance art history with dramatic biographical storytelling, though there are several speculative reconstructions. Caravaggio was a remarkable artist plagued by demons of personal temperament, and this book really gave me a sense of his life and times.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is obvious that Andrew Graham-Dixon has done a lot of research before writing this book. The book is well written and keeps one interested throughout the book. Graham-Dixon not only covers the life of Caravaggio but also provides the history of the catholic church and Italy during the life of the painter. This in-depth coverage made me feel as if I was there. Edoardo Ballerini did an excellent job with all the Italian names. Before reading this book I knew nothing about Caravaggio. Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio was born in Milan on 27 September 1571 and died 18 July 1610 in Porto Ercole. He studied in Milan then in his twenties moved to Rome. He apparently had no problems obtaining commissions but he had a violent temper and was frequently in brawls and in jail. His style of painting had a formative influence on the Baroque School of Painting. He created the style of shadows that make his pictures unique. Graham-Dixon explains each of his major paintings in depth about his technique as well as who hired him and how he worked on the painting. I liked the fact that Graham-Dixon explained the findings of other authors about Caravaggio and if there was new evidence on the subject he explained the findings. This was most evident in his discussion about Caravaggio killing a man in Rome and then his flight to Naples and eventually Malta. Of course, Caravaggio produced paintings in all the cities he visited during his flight. He thought his patron had obtained clearance from the Pope to return to Rome but Caravaggio caught a fever on his trip to Rome from Malta and died at Porto Ercole. I wanted to see some of his painting and I found the Caravaggio foundation has them available on the web. I came into this book knowing nothing but I now feel I have a good understanding of the man and the times he lived in. If you are interested in art or history I am sure you will enjoy this book.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know it's a cliche, but facts about this artist's life are so few and far between he is very much like his own paintings: emerging briefly, every now and then, from the dark out into daylight.
   Details of his early life are particularly sparse - which made (to me at least) the first hundred or so pages of this biography hard going. There's plenty about Milan and Rome, folk art, archbishops and cardinals, but nothing substantial about the man himself. The result is peculiar: like a portrait painting without the portrait, all setting but no face. Once you get beyond that though, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio does begin to emerge - and what a man he is! For a start, I'd forgotten just how far ahead of its time some of his work really was: painted in the seventeenth century, St John The Baptist say, or David With The Head Of Goliath, could have been done in the twentieth.
   I was amazed, too, by his extraordinary life. He strode about the seedier parts of town dressed in a cloak and armed with a sword; he killed an opponent in a duel (although Graham-Dixon argues convincingly that this was accidental) and may have earned money as a pimp. The most astonishing image of all though (as unforgettable as any of his pictures) is that of the great-painter-as-fugitive on the run in fear of his life: fleeing from city to city - and, everywhere he stopped, painting a masterpiece.
   I'm glad I didn't lose patience during those first hundred pages because this is as enthralling a biography (of Caravaggio or anyone else for that matter) as I've ever read.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had the common flaws of biographies about people of whom little is known--speculation, filler and over-focus on their works (when they are artists and writers). The book could have been shorter and suffered less from all three. The filler was pages about events that had nothing to do with Caravaggio--I assume that they were meant to establish "milieu" but they were too long. An example is an extended passage from the trial after artist Artemisia Gentileschi's rape.

While I know that a biography of an artist or writer must discuss his or her works, long descriptions of works should be minimized if it is a biography rather than a work of criticism.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reader will find Andrew Graham-Dixon top form in “Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane.” In this book aimed at the general public, the famous BBC presenter tells the story of Caravaggio in a cheerful, entertaining style. He understands what needs to be explained to the non-expert and refuses to sensationalize his subject . As befits a writer who now works primarily in television, Graham-Dixon builds his text around the images that are in the book. Appropriately, he gives the last word to Martin Scorsese the American filmmaker who asserted that Caravaggio had the unique ability to portray as “people who were living real life”. Caravaggio in the view of Graham-Dixon was the painter who preached the Gospel with scenes from the mean streets of Italy.
Graham-Dixon is very modest constantly deferring to the late Roberto Longhi as being the foremost expert on Caravaggio of our times. Graham-Dixon offers a very simple thesis to the reader. Stylistically, Caravaggio belonged to the “sacro monte” (holy mountain) school which aimed at promoting religious observance in the masses with realistic representations of scenes from the bible and lives from the saints. It began with the crèches of St. Francis. Towards the end of the 15th century, Bernardino Cami created 45 chapels with statuettes depicting scenes from Christ’s life at a pilgrimage site above the mountain village of Varallo.
The individual “sacro monte” scenes were sometimes quite gruesome. They belonged to the world of popular art not high art. The style was diametrically opposed to the naturalized idealism of Raphael and Michelangelo. Caravaggio was aware that the other leading artists of the time were all following the leads of the two great masters of Rome but he resolutely painted gritty, realistic pictures in the “sacro monte” style. He used prostitutes as models for the Virgin Mary and set his biblical scenes in what appeared to be taverns in the ill-reputed districts of Rome.
Graham-Dixon also describes Caravaggio has having been heavily influenced by Milan’s Archbishop Carlo Borromeo who was a vigorous reformer advocating a very strict and ascetic form of Catholicism. Borromeo also believed that it was absolutely essential to engage the common people. In this vein, he promoted spectacles and visual representations of events from the Bible.
Graham-Dixon sees nothing romantic about Caravaggio’s personal life. He regards him simply as a wild, erratic criminal who liked to provoke fights and duels. Caravaggio who may have also been a pimp killed another pimp in a fight involving the control of a prostitute. Another one of Caravaggio’s victims who survived a different brawl appears to have commissioned an assassin who finally put an end to Caravaggio’s days.
Graham-Dixon disagrees with those who argue that Caravaggio’s homosexuality had a great deal of impact on his art. He points out that Caravaggio had both male and female lovers. Graham-Dixon appears to believe that Caravaggio’s greatest love was a prostitute Fillide Melandroni who served as his model for “The Penitent Magdalen” and the Virgin Mary in “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt.” Throughout the entire book in the analyses of the individual paintings, Graham-Dixon argues that one can see that Caravaggio was an intensely religious man of the ascetic movement of Carlo Borromeo.
Andrew-Dixon’s book is nothing if not entertaining. At the same time rigorously avoids all the lurid excesses that the subject matter offers.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Caravaggio’s art is made from darkness and light.’

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, born on 29 September 1571, died on 18 July 1610. In between, he created magnificent paintings and got himself into a lot of trouble with the law. Caravaggio was particularly renowned for his use of chiaroscuro, a technique which uses light and dark to achieve a three dimensional effect. Caravaggio received his early training in Milan where he specialised in still life. Around 1592 he moved to Rome, where he changed the subject matter of his painting to street life and young boys. In 1595, his extraordinary talent caught the attention of Cardinal Francesco del Monte who subsequently became his first patron.

Two of Caravaggio’s three painting about Saint Matthew: The Calling, and The Martyrdom (the third painting is The Inspiration) were his first public commissions and created a sensation. Their success meant that he never lacked commissions or patrons. His paintings in this period were realistic, direct and very intense and looked as though the events they depicted had taken place in the streets of Rome.

But Caravaggio’s personality was also direct and very intense and resulted in his being arrested on several occasions. In 1606, after Caravaggio stabbed and killed Ranuccio Tomassoni, he flees to Naples intending to return to Rome (where friends are lobbying on his behalf) via Malta and Sicily. Along the way, he produces several magnificent works – including the altarpiece ‘The Beheading of St John the Baptist ‘(1607-1608) created for St John’s Cathedral in Valletta, Malta. This altarpiece constituted Caravaggio’s payment to the Knights of Malta for his investiture as a Knight of Magistral Obedience. Alas, Caravaggio was not to retain his knighthood for very long: his escape from Malta in 1608 saw him expelled from the Order.

I found this book fascinating: the details (sometimes speculative) of Caravaggio’s life, the historical context in which he was living and working and the colour plates showing many of his works make it easy to appreciate the extent of his talent. A fascinating look at a gifted but flawed genius.

Caravaggio’s life, as well as his art, was made of darkness and light.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Anneliese Tirry · Rating 3 out of 5]

De figuur van Caravaggio intrigeert me al een paar jaar. Sedert ik het boek "Zondertitel#1" van Gaea Schoeters las waarin het hoofdpersonage een reis maakt in de voetsporen van Caravaggio en ik het schilderij "Het verraad van Christus" zag in The National Gallery van Dublin wou ik toch wel wat meer weten over deze schilder en zijn turbulente leven.
In dit boek kom je veel te weten, zijn leven wordt beschreven en zijn gekende schilderijen in zijn leven geplaatst. Ik heb enorm genoten van de uitleg over de schilderijen, er is heel wat over en weer gebladerd in het boek, want de besproken schilderijen staan er allemaal in, net als bepaalde schilderijen van andere meesters waarop hij zich dan weer inspireerde of die hem op bepaalde momenten in zijn leven de loef hebben afgestoken. Mooi Mooi. Ik heb nu ook 2 favoriete Caravaggio-schilderijen.
Ook het leven van de schilder wordt uit de doeken gedaan, iets te veel zelfs naar mijn gedacht. De zoveelste getuigenverklaring bij het zoveelste gevecht waarvoor hij voor de rechtbank moest verschijnen, dat had voor mij ook allemaal niet zo uitgebreid gemoeten. Maar het was wel interessant te lezen welke strijd hij heeft geleverd, hoe moeilijk het leven voor hem was, en hoe zijn moeilijke start in het leven alle verder jaren, én zijn schilderijen heeft gekleurd.
Ik heb een vertaling gelezen, misschien lag het daar aan, en ik bewonder de vertaler erg om zo een lijvig boek te vertalen, maar boeiend geschreven vond ik het niet. Wel de stukken over de schilderijen, maar de rest was echt langdradig.

[Willy Schuyesmans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graham-Dixon beschrijft in deze verbluffende en diepgaande biografie van de Italiaanse schilder Caravaggio het veelbewogen leven van deze uitzonderlijke kunstenaar, die zichzelf heeft leren schilderen en misschien wel juist daardoor de schilderkunst heeft heruitgevonden. Tot dan werden schilders geacht een geïdealiseerde versie van het leven op doek te zetten. Caravaggio daarentegen wilde de werkelijkheid tonen, gevat in spaarzaam licht en vooral veel duisternis. Hij gebruikte modellen die hij op straat vond, de vagebonden, de armen, de daklozen. Voor de dood van de Moedermaagd koos hij een prostituee als model en zijn Jezuskind verbrijzelde spiernaakt de kop van de slang terwijl zijn vooroverbuigende moeder diep in haar décolleté liet kijken. Tal van zijn schilderijen werden door de opdrachtgevers geweigerd wegens te onconventioneel, maar de echte kunstkenners zagen meteen dat hier eindelijk iets helemaal nieuws ontstond.

Ondertussen liep de meeste gestoorde grootmeester van de Italiaanse kunst er in het dagelijks leven meer dan de kantjes af. Hij was opvliegend en agressief, ging voor de minste belediging op de vuist en pleegde zelfs een moord, waardoor hij Rome moest ontvluchten. Opgejaagd trekt hij naar Napels, naar Malta (waar hij Maltezer ridder probeert te worden, maar het meteen verknoeit wanneer het hem eindelijk lukt), naar Sicilië en weer naar Napels. Niet te geloven is hoe hij tussen periodes in de gevangenis, overleven als zwerver en alweer verwikkeld raken in onverkwikkelijke zaakjes, toch nog de tijd vindt (en de opdrachtgevers) om schilderijen op doek te zetten die vandaag nog altijd in de beroemdste wereldmusea te vinden zijn.

Ik kende een paar van zijn schilderijen, maar wist eigenlijk niets van zijn tumultueuze leven. Graham-Dixon heeft die leemte meer dan opgevuld.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrew Graham-Dixon, via numerous reproductions, begs us to look closer at Caravaggio's work. In 'The Burial of St. Lucy" we now see one of the gravediggers staring at the heavenly-lit hand of a priest, thus reflecting upon the miracle of St. Lucy's martyrdom and perhaps his own path to Christianity. And as I looked closer at other paintings, there were some elements not explained, and I want to know even more about Caravaggio's work. A number of which are so beautiful, I'd like to have a reproduction or two of my own. This is one of my favorite biographies, but Graham-Dixon does spend too much time explaining the times and places of the author's life. Yes, this is important, but the author often digresses to a person who knew a person who knew a person until we're at a point, it seems, that has little to do with Caravaggio. This sometimes feels like filler material, or even feels like the author is demonstrating his already obvious outstanding research. But there are some fascinating "filler material": during Caravaggio's time, there was a new type of singing called 'stile rappresentativo' in which a single voice follows the natural accents and rhythms of spoken language. Imagine, rap music is actually about 500 years old. If you're a fan of Caravaggio or of art in the 1500s and early 1600s, I highly recommend this book to you.

[Guy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real joy, which strikes an ideal balance between life-and-times scene-setting, biographical detail and unapologetically opinionated art criticism. The unanswerable question: would I have loved it quite so much if I hadn't read every word as if it were being narrated in my head by Andrew Graham-Dixon himself?

[Nemo ☠️ (pagesandprozac) · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a compelling, extremely well-written account of caravaggio's life and his paintings. the amount of historical context was just right; not so much that it seemed like a tangent, but enough to give the reader insight into the world and political climate in which caravaggio lived.

[Richard Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Graham-Dixon's biography of one of the great artists manages to be fun, fascinating but also scholarly.

Caravaggio's art of course has survived the ages, but then there is also the legend - the apparent conviction for murder, and a reputation as a debauched dissolute.

But actually the biographical detail of Caravaggio's life is very limited. So Graham-Dixon has to pick over the bones to try and get to some level of truth about the Italian master.

What helps are his regular brushes with the law, which have left evidence of drinking, whoring and violence.

But Graham-Dixon also uses known contemporary events and movements to illuminate the darkness and give a more rounded picture. Most importantly of all though, he studies the art to reveal the man.

The apparent profanity of that art added to Caravaggio's reputation for debauchery, but Graham-Dixon also sees something sacred in his approach.

He certainly makes an eloquent case for its pioneering qualities and its enduring greatness. Caravaggio also appears as a more sympathetic character too, and as we head towards his decline and death, there is a real sense that we lost the potential for even more great art.

There is though plenty of incident as well as artistic analysis. Duels, prostitution and Caravaggio's flight to Malta all add to a rich portrait of a troubled genius.

[Counsel182 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A difficult subject to write about as seemingly there are only secondary sources to rely upon--it's too bad Caravaggio didn't have a Theo. He remains an enigmatic and remarkable character. He was only 38 when he died and led a tumultuous life. Graham-Dixion tells the story through Caravaggio's remarkable paintings--a valiant effort but much of Caravaggio's life seemingly will forever remain a mystery. While the book does have copies of many of the paintings discussed it is perhaps advisable to go online and have ready access to the paintings discussed so you get full value out of the points the author is attempting to make. It was well worth reading and the effort. The stories of the Italian Renaissance and most particularly of the Templar Knights was utterly fascinating as was Caravaggio's repeated successful attempts to "escape" justice until it finally caught up to him in the end.

[Zella Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caravaggio has been my favorite painter since I was a teenager and watched a documentary about him on PBS. Between his stunning and often gory paintings (including his penchant for disconcerting self-portraits inserted into religious imagery) and his crazy life, I was immediately hooked.

I knew the vague outlines of his life, but this book is a wonderfully thorough overview of the man and his world. The author is an art historian who is extremely knowledgeable both of the time period and the history of Italian art. He explains a lot of influences on Caravaggio I was unfamiliar with, including the context of the Counter Reformation and how prevailing taste at the time started to turn on him even as collectors still eagerly snapped up his work and the effect the plague had on his childhood and much of his later imagery around death, as well as how often he referenced Michelangelo with his work and how his later paintings are often evoking medieval art. He also discusses how, though Caravaggio had an apprenticeship with a couple of painters, he largely seems self-taught and apparently could not draw, adding further context for his unique style. There is a heavy emphasis on art analysis, which I enjoyed, and he includes copies of all the paintings, so you can follow along.

He also does a lot of archival work that shines light on the painter's notoriously stormy temper. Caravaggio careens from one brawl and outburst to another, often swaggering through the city armed with a sword and heaping insolence on everyone from his landlady to his artistic rivals to the police. My favorite moment is when he flips out on a waiter over artichoke dressing. But Graham-Dixon also has added context for that, pointing to how the interaction had regional rivalry overtones stemming from snobbishness about the painter's background. Not to excuse Caravaggio, but he likely did pick up on some condescension from a Roman waiter about his Lombard origins, which he predictably reacted to by going absolutely nuclear.

I have often seen his violent predilections and explosive behavior presented as culminating in murder, but as Graham-Dixon persuasively argues, much of that incident makes more sense within the context of a duel. Caravaggio and his rival painters had beef with each other that would put most modern rappers to shame, which led to a contentious libel trial after he and his friends wrote hilariously obscene poems about another painter he hated.

Likewise, many of Caravaggio's earlier crimes are contextualized within archival documents that suggest that he may have been a pimp as well as a painter and enjoyed very strong protection from the Colonna family. Also, the trouble didn't end for Caravaggio then, as he finds trouble even in exile and repeatedly has to flee the cities he had escaped to. His final adventures include a prison escape worthy of the Count of Monte Cristo. He definitely emerges as much like Lord Byron--mad, bad, and dangerous to know. And wonderfully gifted at painting.

[Brenda DZIADZIO · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a challenging read but I’m so glad I have a better perspective on the art that I love by Carravaggio

[Rebecca Harborne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this bad boi up because I read the first few pages and found myself giggling a little bit. Graham-Dixon has a lighthearted and captivating voice, and I continuously found I didn't want to put this book down. He explains Caravaggio's life in a beautifully nuanced way, in that we are aware throughout that this man was a murderer, likely a pimp, and generally not a fun guy to be around, and although Graham-Dixon shows us the context of the political and social environment that made Caravaggio who he was, he never lets him off the hook for it either. I felt sympathy for the man only through the natural sympathy of reading someones life story.
I really appreciated that Graham-Dixon also stated his facts and the thoughts of other biographers before stating his own opinion, I felt it gave me the space to disagree with him over small matters which I think is important because I think it can be easy to read a book and then spout out all the opinions of the author as your own!
Also Caravaggio had an insane life so it was just a good read thanks <3