Caravaggio [Hardcover]

John T. Spike (Author), Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio (Author), Michele K. Spike (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2007

The result of over 20 years of research by a leading authority on Caravaggio, this work reproduces every known work of the artist. John T. Spike explores in detail Caravaggio's scandalous life and provocative work. Placing Caravaggio within the broad panorama of society and ideas at the turn of the 17th century, the author sets a detailed stage for an artist who has been called "the first modern painter." Caravaggio (1571-1610) reflected in his canvases his own desires and spiritual crises to an extent no one ever had imagined possible, and he shocked his contemporaries by portraying the saints and virgins of Christianity with the faces and bodies of his companions and lovers in Rome's demimonde. Accompanying the book is a CD-ROM in which all of Caravaggio's extant paintings, as well as lost and rejected works, are described. Each entry specifies the work's medium, dimensions, location, and provenance, and provides an annotated bibliography of sources. Most of the entries conclude with a brief technical analysis.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Spike's opus is suspended between two eras of the technology of literacy. A well-illustrated text is given over to a chronologically structured study of the artist's life and work, while an enclosed CD-ROM provides a densely detailed catalogue raisonn . While the mass of documentation found in the electronic component of this catalog will be of considerable value to serious students of art history, the book proper does little to advance our understanding of the art or enlarge our appreciation of the significance of the artist. Sporadic efforts to relate the artist to a broad range of contemporary scientific and religious thought, while at times insightful, can also sometimes seem excessive and improbable. Consistent formal scrutiny is also too often slighted in favor of iconographic readings that range from the erudite but plausible to the recondite but strained. Catherine Puglisi's Caravaggio (LJ 4/1/99) is a superior introduction to the artist and his works, while Helen Langdon's Caravaggio: A Life (LJ 6/1/99) is a superior biographical and contextual study. Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Technology, New York
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Of considerable value to serious students of art history..." -- Library Journal

"The Caravaggio book I've been waiting for-John Spike has a great eye, an informed mind and a lucid, engaging style. He shows the intellectual drama of Caravaggio's art." --Peter Robb, author of M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio

"A large, sumptuous volume, profusely illustrated with excellent color plates that are carefully integrated into the text itself... meticulous scholarship... underlines its lively prose." -- John Varriano, College Art Association --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Press; First edition edition (January 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789206390
• ISBN-13: 978-0789206398
• Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 11.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,055,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As Beautiful a Book as The Paintings Themselves, December 27, 2001

By 

Frank Perry (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Caravaggio (Hardcover)

This is a truly magnificent art book, very large, very heavy, very complete. The paper on which the book is printed and on which the paintings are reproduced is very thick and very fine. The paintings themselves and most of Caravaggio's paintings are reproduced here -- mostly in bright, vivid color, many with additional close-up details -- are a delight and are awe-inspiring.

Caravaggio is one of the most magnificent of the Seventeenth Centruy Italian artists. His work is exquisite and sensuously beautiful. This is one of the most extensive catalogues of his work in book form I have ever seen. Michelangelo Merisi himself was something of a roguish, mysterious man, and his life proves to be almost as interesting as the paintings themselves. Spike here gives a fairly complete biography of Merisi who was called "Caravaggio" because he came from that small Italian town. After all, there was another Michelangelo already famous during Caravaggio's lifetime so another name was needed for him.

The text written by John spike is scholarly and straight forward, but there remain many unanswered questions about this strange artist. While the events of Caravaggio's life are vividly told, the text also explains and illuminates each painting through interesting alalyses. Spike tends to be factual and does not speculate much on the mysteries surrounding this dark figure. If you want to be as much entertained as educated on this artist, you might enjoy reading a "companion piece" of sorts: Peter Robb's "M, the Man Who Became Caravaggio". Robb's book is highly speculative, but a well-researched (and fun) boigraphy that porbes the dark side of Merisi's life that I found very convincing in its conclusions. (Not everyone does, however.)

One of the reasons I wanted to buy this admittedly expensive book was because it also contains a CD Rom with the "complete catalog" of all of Caravaggio's work. I was disappoined when I opened the CD Rom because I had expected to find all the paintings themselves in digital form, but there are none on the CD Rom except the cover painting from the book. The CD Rom is otherwise all-text which requires Acrobat Reader (provided with the CD ROM.) But I soon got over the disappointment because the book itself does such a good job of showing this magnificent artist's work so vividly, beautifully, and completely.

This is no ordinary art book. You will treasure it and be proud to show it to friends. It is a fine book produced with the most exquisite techniques of bookbinding. Simply Gorgeous!

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Poor pictures detract from this great work, January 20, 2002

By 

Mark Vella (Missouri City, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Caravaggio (Hardcover)

I agree with the comments in the other reviews that this is an excellent book. It is a shame that many of the pictures are so poor in quality. As a Caravaggio fan, I get a lot of enjoyment even from just viewing the pictures.
Now all we need is a new Caravaggio book with the pictures from Catherine Puglisi's book and the text from John Spike's book.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost perfect, November 26, 2008

By 

Hermann Luft - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Caravaggio (Hardcover)

This is definitely one of the best books, if not the best, ever published on the astounding work of this controversial artist. Design and content deserve highest praise. Anyone wanting to find out in depth what this painter was all about need go no furhter.

I would have loved to have given this impressive book five stars, but I couldn't. Although the printing quality is outstanding, some of the reproductions of the paintings are definitely not. Especially several enlarged details are inexcusably blurry and unsharp. That has nothing to do with the printing process, but the inferior material used in the prepress process. It is obvious that scans that were either unsharp to start out with or of insufficient resolution were blown up too much, resulting in blurry reproduction. What's the use of showing detail when you can't really see it? In a volume of this magnitude one would expect to actually see the brush strokes in enlarged detail.

Still, this book is a gem to possess and a definite "must" for any art enthusiast. The various panitings are discussed in detail, always aimed at offering a deeper understanding of Caravaggio's intentions and masterly style. In addition, the detailed information about his character and life make for a very interesting read indeed. Perhaps never more than in Caravaggio's case is it true that "you cannot take the artist out of his work". His, for the times, highly unconventional, roughish, perhaps even revolutionary and certainly brave way of depicting reality is a revelation. To recognize his insistence on combining ethereal, mostly religious themes with down-to-earth realism is captivating. Nowhere else will you find a painting of shepherds with dirty feet and worn garments kneeling in front of the Virgin and Child.

This is, in spite of its minor shortcomings, a jewel of a book, very readable and visually impressive.