Synopses & Reviews
A bold, fresh biography of the world's first modern painter As presented with "blood and bone and sinew" (Times Literary Supplement) by Peter Robb, Caravaggio's wild and tempestuous life was a provocation to a culture in a state of siege. The of the sixteenth century was marked by the Inquisition and Counter-Reformation, a background of ideological cold war against which, despite all odds and at great cost to their creators, brilliant feats of art and science were achieved. No artist captured the dark, violent spirit of the time better than Caravaggio, variously known as Marisi, Moriggia, Merigi, and sometimes, simply M. As art critic Robert Hughes has said, "There was art before him and art after him, and they were not the same."Caravaggio threw out Renaissance dogma to paint with dazzling originality and fierce vitality, qualities that are echoed in Robb's prose. As with Caravaggio's art, M arrests and susps time to reveal what the author calls "the theater of the partly seen." Caravaggio's wild persona leaps through these pages like quicksilver; in Robb's skilled hands, he is an immensely attractive character with an astonishing connection to the glories and brutalities of life.
Review
"M . . . has a tremous vigour, a dash and swagger it owes to Robb's urgency . . . its hero is wholly, richly alive."(Times Literary Supplement)
Review
"Recreates the mirror Caravaggio held up to nature with singular delicacy as well as passion and panache."—Hilary Spurling,
The New York Times Book Review"[Robb's] biography . . . comes across almost like an eyewitness account. His commentaries on the paintings convey a kind of informed passion in confrontation with genius . . . His account achieves both intimacy and vibrancy because of the richness of layering, its nonstop accumulation of analyzed detail."—Richard Bernstein, The New York Times
"Robb's ambitions are lofty and, plainly put, it is hard not to be seduced by his prose."—The Washington Post
"Partisan, sharply personal, and well worth reading."—The Wall Street Journal
"Passionate, perceptive . . . [Robb] succeeds brilliantly in bringing to life one of the handful of figures in art history whose genius blazed so brightly that it illuminated an entire age and changed forever the course of European art."—The Baltimore Sun
"It is clear that Caravaggio is Robb's oyster, and he makes him ours, too."—The Boston Globe
"That rarest of hybrids, a cerebral thrill ride, and its indulgences are more than balanced by the brilliance of insight."—The Village Voice
"A feast of art appreciation, storytelling, and witty speculation."—Bookpage
Synopsis
Sometimes known simply as M, Caravaggio threw out Renaissance dogma to paint with dazzling originality and fierce vitality--qualities that are echoed in Robb's prose as he suspends time to capture the artist's wild and tempestuous life. of full-color illustrations.
Synopsis
A New York Times Notable Book of the YearAs vividly and unflinchingly presented herein with "blood and bone and sinew" (Times Literary Supplement) by Peter Robb, Caravaggio's wild and tempestuous life was a provocation to a culture in a state of siege. The end of the sixteenth century was marked by the Inquisition and Counter-Reformation, a background of ideological war against which, despite all odds, brilliant feats of art and science were achieved. No artist captured the dark, violent spirit of the time better than Caravaggio, variously known as Marisi, Moriggia, Merigi, and sometimes, simply M. As art critic Robert Hughes has said, "There was art before him and art after him, and they were not the same." Robb's masterful biography "re-creates the mirror Cravaggio held up to nature," as Hilary Spurling wrote in The New York Times Book Review, "with singular delicacy as well as passion and panache."
About the Author
Australian-born Peter Robb has lived in Naples and southern Italy for the past fourteen years. His first book,
Midnight in Sicily, was a New York Times Book Review Notable Book and a New York Public Library Book of the Year.