Caravaggio

This monograph documents the complete works of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Milan, 1571 - Porto Ercole, 1610). It aims at highlighting the master's integrita and the fascination of his extraordinary art. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was a milestone in Italian and European artistic culture. Caravaggio and his works have been in the past years the object of a sort of collective infatuation that on one side brought the value of the master's painting to very high levels and, on the other, generated a proliferation of new attributions, with a subsequent uncertainty and confusion among Caravaggio's devotees, but also a devaluation of the excellent level of the autographed works. This new book, published on the fourth centenary of Michelangelo Merisi's death, is based on the analysis of the artistic production which is confirmed as Caravaggio's, thanks also to the discoveries of recent years. The author tells the artist's life, characterised by lights and shadows, by marvel and scandal, thus presenting us an exceptionally real and alive profile of Caravaggio as a man, as well as his capability to innovate painting through creativity and technique. A complete work, with high-quality reproductions of the paintings, this volume presents the surprising and troubled style of the greatest genius of seventeenth-century Italy.