Customer Reviews

Caravaggio

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

My library contains many various volumes on the subject of Caravaggio--fiction, biography, fictionalized biography and photo surverys of his works--but if I were allowed only one book on this most extradordinary painter and his life I'd take "Caravaggio" by John T. Spike. In this weighty large-format picture-book Mr. Spike has given us the most complete look at the artist and his works currently available, presented in graceful depth so as to engage any interested reader and art enthusiast regardless of the nature of his commitment. It's unusual to find such an authoritative colaboration of art historical expertise and first quality illustration as we have here, a book to read, study and savor.

The reproductions are excellent. The binding is fine and the cover handsome. The writing is solid academically. I would have liked the book to have had more information on the artist and his life. Much is left to be done in the study of Caravaggio. His life still seems to be quite mysterious. His probable use of optics and mirrors in his work is touched on and needs further exploration. This book provides a good introduction to Caravaggio and his paintings in a handsome package.

Nothing to say too much about this "outstanding" book i've been wating for a long time. It's a quite-big-format book. But when you carry it, it's not too heavy as you think. You can feel the graceful qualities of many fine-printed pictures inside only by glancing at its jacket for the first time. Not only the good pictures, but also richly useful texts which will give you many sides and ideas about the works analyzed in this book. However, there are some little problems such as muddle ink spots (for me is in page 142 / I don't know others prints have this same problem ,or not ), some pictures have the powder-like-spot or little white spots (for me, such as Cat. 28 and Cat. 77) and there are some dull or unsharp pictures (Cat.15 and Cat. 22.1 (detail)). Anyway, this book is the great volume you have to buy if you like to know about Caravaggio essentially, so I gave it "5 stars" for the reasons.

the quality of the research and the color of the paintings are outstanding.
Also the CD-ROM has an unbelievable amount of information on the artist's
works and their provenance.
Dr.John T. Spike's 20 years of research is shared with the reader and is so readable and engaging.

The text of this beautiful and generally excellent book is, as others have noted, outstanding in both its biographical coverage and its critical analysis of Caravaggio's major works--an all too rare combination in this field. Beyond presenting a thorough account of the artist's life and explicating concisely but acutely many of his paintings, however, the book also presents the historical and cultural background in which Caravaggio created those works. It weaves that background into its discussion of his life and paintings with deft economy, which results in a rich but never tedious portrayal of 17th century Roman society, political, philosophical and religious currents, and prominent figures. This in turn greatly augments the effectiveness of the central portrayal of Caravaggio's life and works. It's a splendid, informative and insightful read. Indeed the book's only defect, as others have also observed, is the inferior quality of a number of the plates. It is evident that the photos of the paintings are largely if not entirely preexisting ones, and the variation in quality is plain. Color distortion is thankfully fairly minimal at worst, but clarity of image at times suffers. That being said, however, the book remains a masterful and fascinating work that, the occasional dull plate aside, never disappoints.

My husband and I just came back from Italy and we had to have a Caravaggio book. His painting in Vatican museum was especially memorable! I picked this book and it is very good. I agree with the earlier comments that some (not "many") pictures are poor quality (too red), but many photographs are very good, nice size for an art book and very important - it is an interesting and detailed research.

I make no apologies for upsetting those who have heaped ecstatic praises on this large volume (which for some reason was printed in China). After purchasing it I instantly knew not one 5-star reviewer has ever seen an original Caravaggio.

But surely their instincts told them Caravaggio might have been the greatest expert in chiaroscuro effects but he would never cover 50% of his later paintings in black oil? If they had looked at only a couple of small Caravaggio books they'd know Abbeville's printers' black ink consistently obliterates virtually all Caravaggio's incidental details - especially the usually faint background architecture. Plus it's truly weird that every flesh tone (even on the cover) is predominately "sickly yellow". Is it likely any Italian artist would deliberately alienate his client's preference for attractive human beauty?

Caravaggio in his 400th anniversary year deserves a far better fate than to be so abjectly misrepresented by both Abbeville (and Taschen in their monumental equally innacurate jumbo volume). If converts to his art are really interested in seeing fairly accurate copies of his best paintings they need only buy a medium-sized Skira paperback sold by Amazon for $24.95. Or visit Skira's website for a video preview of their new book being published in September.

For those who have doubts as to who to believe regarding the value of this Spike book I'm uploading two 60's Italian reproduction of his Saint Matthew series to be compared with those in Abbeville's book. My quarrel with these near black digital reproductions will immediately become obvious.