Caravaggio A Passionate Life Desmond Seward 9781909609075 Books
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The greatest painter of the Italian Baroque, Caravaggio was also a quicktempered, murderous swordsman. Few artists have had a police record like his. When painting, however, he became a mystic. The models for his Virgins and his saints were prostitutes, but his pictures are deeply spiritual.
At the height of his fame, just after painting the Pope's portrait, Caravaggio killed a man in a duel and had to hide for his life in the wild hills outside Rome. Outlawed, he became a Knight of Malta but, for half-killing a fellow knight in another duel, was thrown into a dungeon from which he escaped, leaping over the prison walls with a rope. After fleeing along the coast of Sicily on small boats, pursued by a nameless enemy, he was caught in a Neapolitan brothel by his enemy's assassins and left for dead, so disfigured by sword cuts that he was unrecognisable. Trying to return to Rome, he was shipwrecked, mistaken for a notorious bandit and arrested, before dying on a Tuscan beach in mysterious circumstances when he was still only thirty-eight. All this time he had been painting furiously, in cellars by lamp light, pictures that are masterpieces. Some must still await rediscovery.
Was Caravaggio a homosexual, whose religious scenes are secretly suffused with homoeroticism? What were the causes of his self-destructive binges and endless brawling? Did the Knights of Malta murder him? Just where did he die and where was he buried? Making use of very recent discoveries in Italy and elsewhere, Desmond Seward answers these questions.
His book is at the same time a gripping adventure story and a study of a moody, violent genius, playing dramatically on the contrast between wonderfully creative art and a vicious private life. It uses both the pictures and contemporary crime reports to peer into Caravaggio’s mind.
"Seward does a fine job of piercing together circumstantial evidence of the painter's turbulent life, while skilful juxtaposition of Caravaggio's personal narrative and art illuminates the origin of his dramatic style." - Kirkus Review
"Seward does a good job of bringing together recent scholarship and background material on Caravaggio's milieu." - Michael Ybarra, Boston Book Review
"Seward ... seeks to clarify the facts and establish a context for the shaping of Caravaggio's notoriously tormented sensibility. He spares no gruesome details in his staggering descriptions of the plague years, during which young Caravaggio lost most of his family, or of the treacherous streets of Rome where nightly knifings and daily public executions made for a macabre world ... Seward's emphasis on Caravaggio's religious convictions goes much further in explicating the power of his art and the nature of his soul than speculation about his sexuality." - Booklist
"He has written a well researched biography of Caravaggio which, in his own words, "Uses the pictures to peer into his mind." Aimed at the general reader, rather than the specialist, it certainly succeeds ... In many ways his treatment is reminiscent, as he admits, of Peter Schaffer's treatment of Mozart in 'Amadeus'." - The Art Newspaper
"Seward's scholarship is pointed, unpretentious, often amusing ... He does his "modest best" to get inside Caravaggio's head through the use of original sources and an adventurous exploration of the world that Caravaggio inhabited ... Caravggio is a lively read, and a rewarding one. Seward's "modest best" is very good indeed." - Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
Caravaggio A Passionate Life Desmond Seward 9781909609075 Books
Firstly an admission, I had no prior knowledge of Caravaggio or his paintings. My main area of interest is military history but after seeing the beautiful cover on this book I picked it up and browsed through the wonderful colour plates. I had to have the book to read and after ordering it from Amazon.com and sat and waited. It was worth the wait! I enjoyed the story of this most interesting man, yes its a bit short (200 odd pages) but to a person like me who had no prior knowledge or interest in this subject it filled a gap in my education. This was an interesting book to read and I just loved the colour plates of the artists work (16 colour pictures). The book has sparked an interest to learn more of this man, his times and his art. For that alone the book was worth it and the author has done his job. I would recommend this book for those who want to learn a little bit more about this man and his art.Product details
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Tags : Caravaggio: A Passionate Life [Desmond Seward] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The greatest painter of the Italian Baroque, Caravaggio was also a quicktempered, murderous swordsman. Few artists have had a police record like his. When painting,Desmond Seward,Caravaggio: A Passionate Life,Thistle Publishing,1909609072,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Artists, Architects, Photographers
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Caravaggio A Passionate Life Desmond Seward 9781909609075 Books Reviews
It is no secret among my friends that Michelangelo Merisi da Carvaggio is among my favorite painters. Because Caravaggio's paintings have a narrative quality, an almost universal appeal and real drama, they have long spoken to me. When the National Gallery of Ireland loaned its newly discovered Caravaggio - one of the best and notably, one that hasn't suffered at the hands of overzealous restorers of past centuries - to our own National Gallery of Art, I flew to Washington to see it. Even hanging in the gallery of Baroque masterpieces, it stood out as a sublime work of art. Like his paintings, Caravaggio's life was a study in contrasts. While he painted soaring religious masterpieces, he lived his life in the gutter, fighting, killing, gambling and whoring. So, enjoying his work as much as I do, it is with pleasure that I share a elegantly crafted, well-written little monograph titled "Caravaggio A Passionate Life." The author, Desmond Seward, is not an art historian but a historian of the Middle Ages and because of the number of art historians with an agenda; this is almost certainly a good thing...instead of being filled with jargon or far fetched theories, he has provided readers with a consise, well-written monograph on a epoch creating artist!
Seward’s book is beautifully written, sentences and paragraphs melt smoothly one into the other with never the slightest hesitation, nothing to take the reader’s mind off a story so fully researched. Seward gives us not only the facts, but he puts them into context we learn what Rome was really like during the end of the 1500s and early 1600s, the density, the crime, down to the odors. We learn how people greatest each other, what they wore, their mind sets, why they could never allow themselves a moment of free thought concerning even the existence of God. The books is a sans faute except for the essential, Caravaggio’s sexuality. Seward doesn’t seem to know that Renaissance man took his pleasure where he found it, and as girls were hidden away in Brinks-like security, they found it among themselves. They all did, from the great Lorenzo Il Magnifico down to the most vile of them all, Pope Alexander VI and his gutter-minded son Cesare Borgia. Seward wants us to believe that Caravaggio was perhaps bisexual in a passing fashion as a mindless lad, something he grew out of. The truth, as Seward should know, is that concepts like homosexuality, heterosexuality and bisexuality didn’t even come into existence until 300 years later. It was an epoch strange to us because today we really do define ourselves as being one of the three. Back then one just didn’t think in those terms. If a man was randy in ancient Rome and a slave boy was handy, it was he the recipient of the man’s lust. During the Renaissance too one took what was available. Rare were those, like Michelangelo and da Vinci, who engaged exclusively in male-male relations, just as in ancient Rome Trajan and Hadrian were themselves rarities, men who really may have died virgin--in today’s sexual parlance concerning those who never know a woman. Those of you who have seen Caravaggio’s The Musicians know this in close-ups two of the boys are shown in the throes of orgasm, their eyes glazed over, the lips barely parted, the tongue, in near-erection, just visible. This is homoerotic art at its most sublime. A disoriented lad going through passing bisexuality doesn’t paint something like that. Caravaggio had two (nearly) life-long lovers, Minniti and Cecco. There was no one under their beds to verify the fact for Mr. Seward, but this was the way of the world during the Italian Renaissance. Other than that, I’m giving Seward five stars because I personally find his Caravaggio at least as good as Graham-Dixon’s much-vaunted (and deservedly so) Caravaggio. My own books can be found on under Michael Hone.
Very readable. The author pieces together a plausible story of his life based on available evidence & scholarship, parsing through the merits and limitations of previous sources.
A wonderful piece to read. It was very helpful for my son. He received an A on his paper. Thank you.
I have always been a fan of Caravaggio and bought this book to enhance my understanding of the artist and his paintings. This book was exactly what I wanted...not overly academic but didn't underestimate the ability of the reader either
Very interesting artist who is now recognized as famous and who painting are currently very expensive but his life was very sad.
Firstly an admission, I had no prior knowledge of Caravaggio or his paintings. My main area of interest is military history but after seeing the beautiful cover on this book I picked it up and browsed through the wonderful colour plates. I had to have the book to read and after ordering it from and sat and waited. It was worth the wait! I enjoyed the story of this most interesting man, yes its a bit short (200 odd pages) but to a person like me who had no prior knowledge or interest in this subject it filled a gap in my education. This was an interesting book to read and I just loved the colour plates of the artists work (16 colour pictures). The book has sparked an interest to learn more of this man, his times and his art. For that alone the book was worth it and the author has done his job. I would recommend this book for those who want to learn a little bit more about this man and his art.
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