Caravaggio

by Catherine Puglisi

Caravaggio è stato il pittore più innovativo del suo tempo e uno dei più grandi artisti di ogni epoca. Criticato da alcuni contemporanei per il suo famigerato temperamento tracotante e aggressivo, visse gli ultimi quattro anni della sua vita in esilio, dopo aver commesso un omicidio. Eppure fu sempre protetto da committenti autorevoli, che ammiravano il marcato realismo e l'originalità della sua arte. I nudi sensuali e le immagini sacre dalla composizione articolata e dal drammatico chiaroscuro rivelano una travolgente potenza psicologica e un'immutata capacità di commuovere e turbare gli osservatori a quasi quattro secoli di distanza dalla loro esecuzione. Lo studio di Catherine Puglisi delinea un vivido ritratto di questo artista inquieto. Basandosi sulle più recenti ricerche d'archivio, sulle moderne analisi tecniche e sulle ultime scoperte, l'autrice dà vita a una ricca monografia, che esamina tutte le opere di Caravaggio, approfondite singolarmente e illustrate da tavole a colori. Radicale e ostile ai compromessi artistici, Caravaggio non disdegnò lo studio dei suoi predecessori e non ruppe mai completamente con la tradizione. Uno dei punti di forza del libro è proprio l'analisi diretta e approfondita delle fonti a cui attinse e dell'ambiente artistico che improntò la sua opera...

Genres: Art, Biography, Nonfiction, History, Art History, Reference

Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're going to get one book on Caravaggio... you could certainly do worse than this edition. Not every book gives you insight like "Dedicating himself to his art, Caravaggio would shut himself up for feverish spurts of activity... but then he would drop work altogether and go about Rome, armed and ready for trouble." This book would probably fall in the category of coffee table book but underpinned with more scholarship than most that I've seen sprinkled with occasional wit. The book perhaps sums up the artist best as, "Devoid of the distancing patina of age, his paintings address the modern viewer with uncommon directness. The very immediacy of religious intensity, violence, and palpable sensuality implicates the viewer, who is tempted to straddle the line between passive observer and voyeur." The high relief of Caravaggio to his contemporaries is best drawn out by the author/editor's selection of Caravaggio paintings with other contemporaries covering the same subject matter. You see Caravaggio's take and you wonder why the rest of them have the volume turned down. Chiaroscuro and tenebrism rocked the art world and the book vividly depicts his creation and evolution of these devices. Along those lines, the Rijksmuseum has an excellent online version of an exhibition comparing Caravaggio and Rembrandt. http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/formats/con... And besides, I can't think of a lot of artists of yore with the chutzpah to (pictorally) sign their name in the spilling blood of a beheaded saint.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mostly looked at the amazing artwork and skimmed little bits here and there.

Might pick up again if I want more details about him or his artwork.

[Ava · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful and complete reproductions. Interesting and previously unexplored scholarship. However, if you are studying Caravaggio in depth, you will want more than Catherine Puglisi’s excellent book. In particular, Howard Hibb’s book,Caravaggio. For meditation purposes on his work, this would be the book to own.
Lately, I have been revisiting Caravaggio with a more “zen” type approach. This has resulted in a renewed appreciation of his work along with a revived curiosity about his life. I’m pretty sure that the proposition has already been offered that Caravaggio was not simply the “bad boy” with the golden hand. I believe it was a golden hand that happened to create the most psychologically and aesthetically arresting examples of Christian (and Catholic) artwork. Perhaps we do the message of his work an injustice with so sharp a divide between what we think we know about Caravaggio and his faith with the product of his talent?

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the best book I've found in terms of representation quality. Beautiful prints of Caravaggio's work. The writing is alright.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply one of the best artists ever to live and paint on this earth.

[Lu]

Large history and beautiful photos