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.
I like Caravaggio but there is no saving this little guide. Its so badly done, all the most interesting pictures are spread across two pages so you lose most of them in the fold, unless you crack the spine and even then its hard to see the full picture. The text is even worse, full of typos and grammatical errors, but so badly written whole pages make no sense. I found I was re-reading something for sense on every page and in the end gave up to skim read which was less painful.
If that wasn't bad enough the interpretations of elements of the paintings were gibberish.
Just skimmed through- though the photos and illustrations were great, and even though many enlargements of details were included — it was still too small for me. I know this was just to be a quick highlights type book - and as that it succeeds
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' - both excellent books. The colour plates were lovely and each had detailed text to assist you in your studies of his work. This is a nice and easy to read guide book to this artists beautiful work. The narrative provides enough detail about Caravaggio's life and work to give you the basic idea but do not expect a detailed account, you will have to look elsewhere. Overall this a quick reference guide and is well worth a look.
An early example of the anguished artist. It is amazing how widespread his impact on artistic style was for having only lived 38 years...38 years filled with rage and anguish.