Customer Reviews

Quoting Caravaggio: Contemporary Art, Preposterous History

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I've never seen such high quality color reproduction in an academic text. Chicago UP should be congratulated for doing such a fine job. Gorgeous images. And the choice of images is thought-provoking - a wonderful array of artists. Bal's argument made me think about artists like Serrano in a new way. I wasn't familiar with Ken Aptekar, but I'll definitely try to find out more about his work. Bal's writing is lucid, intelligent - stimulating stuff.

This is a joy to read for someone who loves Caravaggio and who's interested in modern art. The book is full of wonderful prints of art works and reading the comparisons between baroque masterpieces and modern installation art and paintings increases my pleasure in both.

In addition, Mieke Bal is a prominent narratologist, and her discussions of the narrative aspects of the visual art she discusses are fascinating. She proposes a narratology that surpasses the limited formalist categories, and theorises a narration in visual art, both in art with textual components and seemingly abstract, or at least non-figurative art. This interdisciplinary is very valuable at a time when discussions of narrative in visual art and new media generally are divided into an exaggerated formalist denial of narrativity or a naive assumption that "everything is narrative".

a terrific study of history and questions of influence in the arts...spectacular design and color illustrations.

Long story short: this is a spectacularly pretentious book that says precious little about Caravaggio or his art.

90% of the book is the kind of vapid talk, talk, talk that has meaning only to the kind of phony "artists" who populate our cities and museums with ugliness and nonsense. Though a very few pieces are shown to "quote" from Carvaggio, most have nothing to do with his art. So why are they discussed in this book? Is this book nothing more than a marketing gimmick for lousy artists?

There's the artist who copies a small section of Caravggio's "Christ and Saint Thomas," and below it displays a square filled with red Jello. OK, at least the "work" has something do with the great master. But how about the installation that consists of 7 benches that have leaky red gelatin atop them in the place of cushions? And where do Andre Seranno's morgue photos or his "P*ss Christ" fit in -- except perhaps to shock the reader?

This book is a complete load of nonsense. But it *is* expensive. Do avoid this if you are looking for a serious look at more than a handful of Caravaggio's works, accompanied by a sensible discussion of his craft and subjects.