Caravaggio A Life Sacred and Profane [Paperback]

Enthralling&reads like a historical-swashbuckler-cum-detective-story while also providing an up-to-date introduction to some of the most admired paintings in Western art.Graham-Dixon combed the criminal records of the era to glean extraordinary details about the artists run-ins with the law. He skillfully evokes the social and religious context of turn-of-the-17th-century Italy.A thrilling lesson in the art of seeing&a detective story with a highly satisfying ending.This book [resees] its subject with rare clarity and power as a painter for the 21st century.Caravaggio has rarely been seen in such depth and such relief as in this marvelous biography.Graham-Dixon combines the rigor of a historian with the imaginative insight of a novelist to create a subtle and beautifully burnished portrait.Andrew Graham-Dixon brings the bad-boy genius of the seventeenth century to life as vividly as if he were one of todays pop stars.A rollicking take on the Counter Reformation painter, an autodidact prone to smashing plates in restaurants, challenging competitors with swords, and using prostitutes as models for the Virgin Mary.[Graham-Dixon] took ten years to come to terms with a very obdurate and highly original painter. Time well spent.Graham-Dixon demonstrates why he is considered the foremost British art critic of his generation&Hes achieved a masterpiece of his own: an informative, fresh account of the painters life and death. Even more impressive are the authors powerful and accessible analyses of Caravaggios paintings, commentary that leaves readers eager to see the pieces at the heart of the story.Brilliantly illuminates the life of an artist who was no less shadowy than his canvasesa man capable of both committing murder and creating ineffable beauty.A