Caravaggio 1571 - 1610 Warszawa

The dramatic events of the troubled life of Caravaggio, one of the most formidable painters in the art history of all time, are retraced in this book, published in Italian on the occasion of the 450 years of his birth, documented in Milan in 1571, and updated in this edition in light of the latest discoveries. The book delves into the most significant circumstances that shattered the brief and surprising path of the professional life of the great Lombard genius in just fourteen years: from his arrival in Rome in 1596 to his tragic and still mysterious death in Porto Ercole in 1610, when Caravaggio had not turned thirty-nine yet. A gripping story exerting an irresistible attraction on us, perhaps equal to the one emanated by the artist’s masterpieces, in which his most intimate essence shines through. His exceptional works, characterized by a merciless representation of reality underlined by violent contrasts between shadow and light, and by a revolutionary way of painting, are here rigorously analyzed, for the first time on a large scale, not only from the historical and stylistic point of view, but also from the technical one. A methodology that has become one of the essential components for the full understanding of the Caravaggio phenomenon in recent years. It is for this reason that the historical-artistic entries of his extraordinary autographed works are accompanied by specific technical-diagnostic notes that for the first time complete and integrate in this book the reading of his paintings.