Caravaggio. The Complete Works

(Hardback)

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Description

Caravaggio, or more accurately Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), was a legend even in his own lifetime. Notorious bad boy of Italian painting, the artist was at once celebrated and controversial: Violent in temper, precise in technique, a creative master, and a man on the run.

This work offers a comprehensive reassessment of Caravaggio's entire uvre with a catalogue raisonn of his works. Each painting is reproduced in large format, with recent, high production photography allowing for dramatic close-ups with Caravaggio's ingenious details of looks and gestures.

Five introductory chapters analyze Caravaggio's artistic career from his early struggle to make a living, through his first public commissions in Rome, and his growing celebrity status. They look at his increasing daring with lighting and with a boundary-breaking naturalism which allowed even biblical events to unfold with an unprecedented immediacy before the viewer.

Reviews

The pictures come across as so real that leafing through this book, the reader almost smells the oil paint. Every page is a pleasure for the senses. * NDR Kultur *
This book is an artwork unto itself-perfect for Italian Renaissance aficionados. * Die Welt *
The reproductions are excellent, the details often breathtakingly vivid... * The Royal Academy Magazine *
This comprehensive study showcases each painting in state-of-the-art photography, with close-ups of details, like his ability to capture emotion with the subtlest of facial expressions. The text analyses his career and his riotous life: a rag-to-riches story every bit as dramatic as Caravaggio's art. * The Lady *

Author Bio

Sebastian Schtze was a longtime research fellow at the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max Planck Institute for Art History) in Rome. He is a member of the academic board of the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici in Naples, and a member of the sterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. From 2003 to 2009 he held the Bader Chair in Southern Baroque Art at Queens University in Kingston. In 2009 he was appointed professor of early modern art history at Vienna University.