Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles (Eminent Lives) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "HE WAS THIRTY-NINE when he died, in the summer of 1610..." (more)
Key Phrases: Del Monte, Saint Matthew, Michelangelo Merisi (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The first thing to know about this life of the Italian baroque painter Caravaggio is that it is not a proper biography but rather an informal appreciation by novelist and occasional art critic Prose (Blue Angel). As with the other volumes in the Eminent Lives series, groundbreaking research is not expected. Fair enough. Yet despite her obvious love for the artist, Prose has little of substance to say about him. Once she dispatches with the basic points of the artist's life—that Caravaggio defied the fashion for mannered, pious painting with a gritty but theatrical realism that mirrored the artist's turbulent life—she resorts to the puffed-up style of a student trying to reach a term paper's required length. She stuffs her pages with redundant adjectives ("wan, exhausted, used up," "constant and unchanged") and finds no point too trite to repeat three times: "You can watch an artist realizing that what he is doing is succeeding, that the paint is doing precisely what he wants it to do, that his intention and purpose are finding their way onto the canvas." Even those with only a casual interest in the artist would be better served by Helen Langdon's 1998 biography Caravaggio: A Life, which is as accessible as it is scholarly and is now out in paperback. (Oct.)
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From Booklist

One of Prose's many gifts is her ability to quickly and vividly establish a context for the personalities she so acutely portrays, whether it's a fictional character or, in her discerning nonfiction, a real-life figure in the art world. Here she focuses on the revolutionary Italian artist Caravaggio. A contemporary of Shakespeare, Caravaggio was "belligerent, contemptuous, and competitive," a revered artist and a notorious street fighter wanted for murder who died at 39 under tragic circumstances. Much has been written about Caravaggio and his dramatic paintings, especially his daringly earthy depictions of biblical scenes, but somehow Prose's concentrated interpretation has a stronger impact. Not only does she cover all the biographical essentials but she also more clearly and descriptively explicates the pioneering painter's unique perception of the miraculous in everyday life. Prose also reveals, with both subtlety and flourish, how Caravaggio's frank interpretations of violence and pain, fear and grief, dignity and transcendence are matched with a brilliant subversion of our sense of reality. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Eminent Lives (October 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060575603
• ISBN-13: 978-0060575601
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #101,328 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Concise and Precise Brief Study of Caravaggio, January 28, 2006

By	Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The series of books Eminent Lives being produced by General Editor James Atlas for Atlas Books, a division of Harper Collins is a true project that fills a vital need in the paucity of the arts education in this country at present. Coupling excellent writers with biographies of great people is long overdue and after reading Francine Prose's very fine but succinct evaluation of the life of painter Caravaggio the reader will want to collect all of the volumes of this educational and enlightening series.

Though there are many huge tomes readily available on the art and the wild life of Michelangelo Merisi (da Caravaggio) that offer a much more complete view of the great artist's artist output and more detailed accounts of his sexual life and his criminal life involving the church and the state throughout Italy during his relatively brief life (1571 - 1610). Francine Prose approaches her subject more as a novelist than as reportage. She covers the important aspects of Caravaggio's influences, his beginnings, his particular gifts of painting that incorporated models form the street to depict religious icons, his miraculous understanding and reproduction of light and shadow, and his propensity to follow his hedonistic needs in lieu of being faithful to his career.

This is a physically small volume (perfect for tucking into the jacket pocket or purse for reading away from home) and therein lays its main drawback: the few reproductions of paintings that serve to underline Prose's commentary are too small to satisfy the art lover. But for those images there are many monographs surveys available that may serve as adjuncts to this concise Eminent Life. Recommended. Grady Harp, January 06

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Portrait of the Artist, January 27, 2006

By	D. A Wend (Buffalo Grove, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I have had a long interest in Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and over the years have had the pleasure of seeing the retrospective held at the Metropolitan Museum in New York in the late 1980's and seeing his paintings in Rome and Naples. I heard of Francine Prose's book in a review and was drawn to read it. I do not have any other books solely devoted to Caravaggio but have several on his time period.

First, the book is a small format which may be surprising but for me was not a huge drawback. The only problem with the size of the book is that the illustrations are smaller than some people may like. I found Ms. Prose's text to be the focus of this book, not the illustrations. I liked her writing and overall presentation. I did not find her adjectives redundant and the complaining quotations by other reviews I think are out of context. For me, Ms. Prose presents the life and times of Caravaggio with as full a presentation that I wanted, delving into what it was like to be a painter in his times and giving us as much detail as there is about her subject. I thought she created excellent work pictures of Caravaggio's paintings. The only problem is that many are not reproduced in her book so I had to go to other sources. However, I think that if one is interested in Caravaggio you will want to read Ms. Prose's book and find the missing paintings elsewhere. This book may not be an exhaustive study of Caravaggio but it is an excellent introduction to the painter with many thought provoking observations.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent introduction, November 22, 2005

By	J. Rosenberg "reggieroy" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I knew nothing of Caravaggio except his name and approximate era of painting when I began this book. I read it because I admire all of Francine Prose's writing. Also, I didn't read the New York Times review carefully and expected a novel based on the artist's life.

So, I when I got to the library and found this thin book I was a bit disappointed, but read it anyway. At first it was confusing and the Italian names complicated, but I got into it and finished it in one day.

Of course, a slim volume cannot cover everything. Yes, only a few paintings are represented in color. But anyone who wants to see more can go online as I did and see plenty.

What I missed in the book was an index so that I could go back to the descriptions of all the paintings in the book and read them while looking at their online representations. As most of the artist's works are in Italy, I'm not likely to see them in person.

Those who complained in Amazon reviews that the book doesn't cover every painting in detail should take a look at the description of the Eminent Lives series of which the book is a part. It clearly states these books are "...ideal introductions designed to appeal to the general reader, the student, and the scholar."

I agree.