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Caravaggio
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.
418 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 27, 2024
Picked this up at a used bookstore and I must say that it is a much better book in the age of smartphones than it would have been when it was published. This is because, as other reviewers have pointed out, the grainy black and white reproductions of Caravaggio's paintings are basically useless. This is especially egregious for Caravaggio, whose paintings are most famous for their dark chariascuro lighting. As rendered in the book, that leaves entire details of the paintings completely obscure. This isn't the author's fault--I doubt he was pounding his fist on the publisher's desk demanding that the artwork be as shitty as possible--but it is still a problem. But with a smartphone on hand to Google search paintings as they are mentioned this isn't too big a deal.
Not being a specialist on Baroque art or early 17th Century Italian history or Counter-Reformation Catholicism, I can't comment too extensively on the author's scholarship or interpretations. I'm sure that in the years since this book was written there has been newer scholarship to challenge some of the claims. This is inevitable. Though it is written in an academic style, I found the writing to be engaging and felt that at just over 250 pages of text (plus endnotes and sources) it gave a proper amount of detail for the lay reader like me who loves Caravaggio's art and has a rough understanding of his life and times going in. I particularly appreciated the author's focus on the influences and continuity with earlier 15th and 16th century artists. Caravaggio is rightfully celebrated for his originality in lighting and psychological realism of his paintings, but it's easy to get carried away and act as though he (or any great artist) was some totally sui generis Capital-G Genius. Hibbert is convincing in drawing parelells to the dark lighting of early masters like Leonardo and makes an interesting application of Bloom's Anxiety of Influence theory to Caravaggio's relation to Michelangelo, who was simultaneously an influence and a figure to rebel against.
Also, the chronological structure of the book does a good job in highlighting Caravaggio's artistic growth over his short career and also how social and personal developments influenced him. And it does this while remaining a study of Caravaggio's art rather than a straight biography, which I appreciated. He does admittedly stumble into some awkward Freudian speculation about Caravaggio's life and paintings. For example, he repeatedly goes on about castration fear being symbolically expressed through the repeated motif of decapitation. I, for one, think that it is plausible that paintings of beheadings may have less to do with the artists' fear of castration and more to do with the fact that he also feared being beheaded.
That being said, he is very good at depicting the technical and thematic development of Caravaggio as a painter. As someone who can't draw, it warmed my heart to see Caravaggio's struggles, especially during the 1590s, with perspective and the realistic spatial placement of figures. And he makes an interesting speculation about the influence that these technical limitation on his penchant for dark shadowy lighting that obscures much of the frame (and as a consequence his shortcomings). He also provides an interesting analysis of Caravaggio's increasing use of empty space in his later paintings. The figures become smaller and the scenes become increasingly overwhelmed by their surroundings. All of this has the impact of further bringing the high drama of the religious scenes back down to earth. For all of the import associated with, say, the beheading of John the Baptist, ultimately it is just a tawdry act of violence committed by a couple men outside of the jailhouse in a backwater province of the Roman Empite.
There are a couple of really glaring issues that the book has. One is in his discussion of the Flagellation of Christ. He provides a terrific analysis of the composition and bodily gestures of the Christ bending to the right of the frame as his tormenters roughly stomp down on the back of his calf and pull his head back toward his hair as he is tied to the post. However from reading this book one would have no idea that Caravaggio painted two versions of this painting. The first where the three tormenters are tying him to the post and a second in which he is leaning toward the left away from the one tormenter who has the whip raised in the air. Earlier in the book, Hibbard notes how in Still Life (1598) Caravaggio includes a tendril from the basket of fruit jutting out of the frame's right side of frame as a technique for drawing the eye and increasing visual interest. Caravaggio uses the same technique in the second Flagellation of Christ painting with the whip jutting out of frame on the right side. This could have been an interesting opportunity to talk about how Caravaggio reused certain devices over his career in wildly different genres, but Hibbard doesnt take this opportunity because he writes as though there is only one version of the Flagellation.
Equally befuddling is his treatment of the famous David With The Head of Goliath painting. As I stated previously, the book has a chronological structure, moving through his life and giving context, analysis and interpretation of each of the major paintings as he goes until in the final chapter he reaches Caravaggio's death at 38 while on the run after killing a man. Then he has an epilogue titled "Afterthoughts", in which he reflects on Caravaggio's importance and summarizes the major theses of the book. For some inexplicable reason, Hibbard holds off on discussing David... until the afterthoughts section and gives only a few paragraphs on it. This would be like if you wrote a book on the Beatles, ended the final chapter sensibly enough with their breakup in 1970 and then in the epilogue were like "Oh, I hadnt mentioned this earlier but in 1968 they released The White Album. A lot of my general theses about their music apply to that one too." It's a very strange way to treat what is arguably Caravaggio's greatest and most personal work.
In spite of these flaws, Hibbard's book was enjoyable and illuminating. It's a great introduction to Caravaggio's art for the non-expert.
Not being a specialist on Baroque art or early 17th Century Italian history or Counter-Reformation Catholicism, I can't comment too extensively on the author's scholarship or interpretations. I'm sure that in the years since this book was written there has been newer scholarship to challenge some of the claims. This is inevitable. Though it is written in an academic style, I found the writing to be engaging and felt that at just over 250 pages of text (plus endnotes and sources) it gave a proper amount of detail for the lay reader like me who loves Caravaggio's art and has a rough understanding of his life and times going in. I particularly appreciated the author's focus on the influences and continuity with earlier 15th and 16th century artists. Caravaggio is rightfully celebrated for his originality in lighting and psychological realism of his paintings, but it's easy to get carried away and act as though he (or any great artist) was some totally sui generis Capital-G Genius. Hibbert is convincing in drawing parelells to the dark lighting of early masters like Leonardo and makes an interesting application of Bloom's Anxiety of Influence theory to Caravaggio's relation to Michelangelo, who was simultaneously an influence and a figure to rebel against.
Also, the chronological structure of the book does a good job in highlighting Caravaggio's artistic growth over his short career and also how social and personal developments influenced him. And it does this while remaining a study of Caravaggio's art rather than a straight biography, which I appreciated. He does admittedly stumble into some awkward Freudian speculation about Caravaggio's life and paintings. For example, he repeatedly goes on about castration fear being symbolically expressed through the repeated motif of decapitation. I, for one, think that it is plausible that paintings of beheadings may have less to do with the artists' fear of castration and more to do with the fact that he also feared being beheaded.
That being said, he is very good at depicting the technical and thematic development of Caravaggio as a painter. As someone who can't draw, it warmed my heart to see Caravaggio's struggles, especially during the 1590s, with perspective and the realistic spatial placement of figures. And he makes an interesting speculation about the influence that these technical limitation on his penchant for dark shadowy lighting that obscures much of the frame (and as a consequence his shortcomings). He also provides an interesting analysis of Caravaggio's increasing use of empty space in his later paintings. The figures become smaller and the scenes become increasingly overwhelmed by their surroundings. All of this has the impact of further bringing the high drama of the religious scenes back down to earth. For all of the import associated with, say, the beheading of John the Baptist, ultimately it is just a tawdry act of violence committed by a couple men outside of the jailhouse in a backwater province of the Roman Empite.
There are a couple of really glaring issues that the book has. One is in his discussion of the Flagellation of Christ. He provides a terrific analysis of the composition and bodily gestures of the Christ bending to the right of the frame as his tormenters roughly stomp down on the back of his calf and pull his head back toward his hair as he is tied to the post. However from reading this book one would have no idea that Caravaggio painted two versions of this painting. The first where the three tormenters are tying him to the post and a second in which he is leaning toward the left away from the one tormenter who has the whip raised in the air. Earlier in the book, Hibbard notes how in Still Life (1598) Caravaggio includes a tendril from the basket of fruit jutting out of the frame's right side of frame as a technique for drawing the eye and increasing visual interest. Caravaggio uses the same technique in the second Flagellation of Christ painting with the whip jutting out of frame on the right side. This could have been an interesting opportunity to talk about how Caravaggio reused certain devices over his career in wildly different genres, but Hibbard doesnt take this opportunity because he writes as though there is only one version of the Flagellation.
Equally befuddling is his treatment of the famous David With The Head of Goliath painting. As I stated previously, the book has a chronological structure, moving through his life and giving context, analysis and interpretation of each of the major paintings as he goes until in the final chapter he reaches Caravaggio's death at 38 while on the run after killing a man. Then he has an epilogue titled "Afterthoughts", in which he reflects on Caravaggio's importance and summarizes the major theses of the book. For some inexplicable reason, Hibbard holds off on discussing David... until the afterthoughts section and gives only a few paragraphs on it. This would be like if you wrote a book on the Beatles, ended the final chapter sensibly enough with their breakup in 1970 and then in the epilogue were like "Oh, I hadnt mentioned this earlier but in 1968 they released The White Album. A lot of my general theses about their music apply to that one too." It's a very strange way to treat what is arguably Caravaggio's greatest and most personal work.
In spite of these flaws, Hibbard's book was enjoyable and illuminating. It's a great introduction to Caravaggio's art for the non-expert.
July 22, 2010
I haven't finished this -- but I'm not likely to continue with it at this point. The book is academic (which will serve the specialist more than the layman), and the prints are worthless since they are all in black&white and poorly reproduced at that. I have at hand Hibbard's book on Michelangelo, which looks better, and I will try to read that one one day perhaps.
February 17, 2015
This book is now outdated by recent research and publications but it continues to be useful for containing all the early biographical texts of Caravaggio as well as detailed information on the provenance of the known paintings.
March 22, 2009
This is one of the premier biographies on Caravaggio. It was well written and very compelling, for those of us interested in the art and life of Caravaggio.
April 13, 2023
The most analytical and academic study of Caravaggio. Includes some good reproductions but concentrates on linking the paintings to his biography. Also includes the previous historical sources on Caravaggio as appendix.
"Caravaggio's works create a strong sense of a compelling personality, but
little other evidence remains; he wrote nothing, and very few of his words are
recorded. His biography was, however, written by two of his contemporaries who
knew him well. One was the Sienese doctor, Giulio Mancini, writer on art and
connoisseur, collector and dealer. He was a vivid and eccentric personality
who looked after Caravaggio when he was ill and knew him well, particularly
during the period in which Caravaggio was in the palace of Cardinal del Monte
tin the later 1590s.[1. On Caravaggio and Mancini see M. Maccherini,
"Caravaggio nel Carteggio familiare di Giulio Mancini," Prospettiva, 86, 1997,
pp.71-92.] His is the first biography of Caravaggio and he later made a series
of additions to his manuscripts which show that he tried to keep his
information up to date. Next came the life by Giovanni Baglione, published in
his Lives of the Artists in 1642. Baglione was a respectable painter and
writer, who worked in Rome when Caravaggio was there, and knew him well. His
biography is short but accurate, and given that Caravaggio was his enemy, and
openly derided him, it has a remarkable objectivity. A further biographer,
Giovan Pietro Bellori, who wrote a little later in the century, based his Life
of 1672 on that of Baglione, but it was well researched and added some new
information; he annotated his copy of Baglione's Lives. All these early
biographies, including Mancini's additions and Bellori's marginal notes have
been published in translation by Howard Hibbard in his Caravaggio. [2. H.
Hibbard, Caravaggio (London, 1983)(ed. con 1988): pp. 343-387)]" 4-5
"Caravaggio's works create a strong sense of a compelling personality, but
little other evidence remains; he wrote nothing, and very few of his words are
recorded. His biography was, however, written by two of his contemporaries who
knew him well. One was the Sienese doctor, Giulio Mancini, writer on art and
connoisseur, collector and dealer. He was a vivid and eccentric personality
who looked after Caravaggio when he was ill and knew him well, particularly
during the period in which Caravaggio was in the palace of Cardinal del Monte
tin the later 1590s.[1. On Caravaggio and Mancini see M. Maccherini,
"Caravaggio nel Carteggio familiare di Giulio Mancini," Prospettiva, 86, 1997,
pp.71-92.] His is the first biography of Caravaggio and he later made a series
of additions to his manuscripts which show that he tried to keep his
information up to date. Next came the life by Giovanni Baglione, published in
his Lives of the Artists in 1642. Baglione was a respectable painter and
writer, who worked in Rome when Caravaggio was there, and knew him well. His
biography is short but accurate, and given that Caravaggio was his enemy, and
openly derided him, it has a remarkable objectivity. A further biographer,
Giovan Pietro Bellori, who wrote a little later in the century, based his Life
of 1672 on that of Baglione, but it was well researched and added some new
information; he annotated his copy of Baglione's Lives. All these early
biographies, including Mancini's additions and Bellori's marginal notes have
been published in translation by Howard Hibbard in his Caravaggio. [2. H.
Hibbard, Caravaggio (London, 1983)(ed. con 1988): pp. 343-387)]" 4-5
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December 17, 2021Caravaggio 350页
9.7 (88人评价) Sebastian Schutze / TASCHEN GmbH / 2009
作品概述集
9.7 (88人评价) Sebastian Schutze / TASCHEN GmbH / 2009
作品概述集
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May 18, 2013While his paintings are generally not of my taste, I could not deny the fact that they evoke overwhelming feelings. There is this strange attractiveness, both beautiful and scary at the same time.
About this book, this book is perhaps not for casual read. It does not mean it is a tough read, writing style is actually very friendly, not the journal-style type. Yet the materials itself are presented not for audience who does not have a particular interest in arts beforehand and some basic background of art history. Essentially, this is a biography, a collection of information the author gathered on Caravaggio: his birth, his death, his paintings, his patrons, and some analysis of his works. But's that's it. It's not a story woven to attract attention, not a flirtation to get you into art world. You must be already seduced in order to engage in Hibbard's conversation. Therefore, if you're looking for something particularly fun to read, this is not. Don't pick it.
On the other hand, it's a great introduction to Caravaggio for art students. Still, this is an old book, too. That said it approaches the artist in a traditional way, trying to explain the his work based on psychology analysis, everything else about the audience, patrons, production of art, its subsequent fates and receptions, are quite ignored.
About this book, this book is perhaps not for casual read. It does not mean it is a tough read, writing style is actually very friendly, not the journal-style type. Yet the materials itself are presented not for audience who does not have a particular interest in arts beforehand and some basic background of art history. Essentially, this is a biography, a collection of information the author gathered on Caravaggio: his birth, his death, his paintings, his patrons, and some analysis of his works. But's that's it. It's not a story woven to attract attention, not a flirtation to get you into art world. You must be already seduced in order to engage in Hibbard's conversation. Therefore, if you're looking for something particularly fun to read, this is not. Don't pick it.
On the other hand, it's a great introduction to Caravaggio for art students. Still, this is an old book, too. That said it approaches the artist in a traditional way, trying to explain the his work based on psychology analysis, everything else about the audience, patrons, production of art, its subsequent fates and receptions, are quite ignored.
September 29, 2007
great prose... some outdated information, though
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews