Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) lived the darkest and most dangerous life of any of the great painters. This commanding biography explores Caravaggio's staggering artistic achievements, his volatile personal trajectory, and his tragic and mysterious death at age thirty-eight. Featuring more than eighty full-color reproductions of the artist's best paintings, Caravaggio is a masterful profile of the mercurial painter.
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.--Michael Dirda "Washington Post"
Graham-Dixon combed the criminal records of the era to glean extraordinary details about the artist's run-ins with the law. He skillfully evokes the social and religious context of turn-of-the-17th-century Italy.--Ann Levin "Associated Press"
This book [resees] its subject with rare clarity and power as a painter for the 21st century.--Hilary Spurling "New York Times Book Review"
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.--Megan O'Grady "Vogue"
[Graham-Dixon] took ten years to come to terms with a very obdurate and highly original painter. Time well spent.-- "Economist"
Andrew Graham-Dixon is an art historian, biographer, and broadcaster. He was for many years the main art critic of the Independent and The Sunday Telegraph and is the author of the award-winning biography Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane. He lives in East Sussex.