Caravaggio

Rating:
Summary: Poor pictures detract from this great work
Review: I agree with the comments in the other reviews that this is an excellent book. It is a shame that many of the pictures are so poor in quality. As a Caravaggio fan, I get a lot of enjoyment even from just viewing the pictures.
Now all we need is a new Caravaggio book with the pictures from Catherine Puglisi's book and the text from John Spike's book.

Rating:
Summary: This is the one.
Review: My library contains many various volumes on the subject of Caravaggio--fiction, biography, fictionalized biography and photo surverys of his works--but if I were allowed only one book on this most extradordinary painter and his life I'd take "Caravaggio" by John T. Spike. In this weighty large-format picture-book Mr. Spike has given us the most complete look at the artist and his works currently available, presented in graceful depth so as to engage any interested reader and art enthusiast regardless of the nature of his commitment. It's unusual to find such an authoritative colaboration of art historical expertise and first quality illustration as we have here, a book to read, study and savor.

Rating:
Summary: Caravaggio's are here for you !
Review: Nothing to say too much about this "outstanding" book i've been wating for a long time. It's a quite-big-format book. But when you carry it, it's not too heavy as you think. You can feel the graceful qualities of many fine-printed pictures inside only by glancing at its jacket for the first time. Not only the good pictures, but also richly useful texts which will give you many sides and ideas about the works analyzed in this book. However, there are some little problems such as muddle ink spots (for me is in page 142 / I don't know others prints have this same problem ,or not ), some pictures have the powder-like-spot or little white spots (for me, such as Cat. 28 and Cat. 77) and there are some dull or unsharp pictures (Cat.15 and Cat. 22.1 (detail)). Anyway, this book is the great volume you have to buy if you like to know about Caravaggio essentially, so I gave it "5 stars" for the reasons.

Rating:
Summary: Caravaggio's are here for you !
Review: Nothing to say too much about this "outstanding" book i've been wating for a long time. It's a quite-big-format book. But when you carry it, it's not too heavy as you think. You can feel the graceful qualities of many fine-printed pictures inside only by glancing at its jacket for the first time. Not only the good pictures, but also richly useful texts which will give you many sides and ideas about the works analyzed in this book. However, there are some little problems such as muddle ink spots (for me is in page 142 / I don't know others prints have this same problem ,or not ), some pictures have the powder-like-spot or little white spots (for me, such as Cat. 28 and Cat. 77) and there are some dull or unsharp pictures (Cat.15 and Cat. 22.1 (detail)). Anyway, this book is the great volume you have to buy if you like to know about Caravaggio essentially, so I gave it "5 stars" for the reasons.

Rating:
Summary: As Beautiful a Book as The Paintings Themselves
Review: This is a truly magnificent art book, very large, very heavy, very complete. The paper on which the book is printed and on which the paintings are reproduced is very thick and very fine. The paintings themselves and most of Caravaggio's paintings are reproduced here -- mostly in bright, vivid color, many with additional close-up details -- are a delight and are awe-inspiring.

Caravaggio is one of the most magnificent of the Seventeenth Centruy Italian artists. His work is exquisite and sensuously beautiful. This is one of the most extensive catalogues of his work in book form I have ever seen. Michelangelo Merisi himself was something of a roguish, mysterious man, and his life proves to be almost as interesting as the paintings themselves. Spike here gives a fairly complete biography of Merisi who was called "Caravaggio" because he came from that small Italian town. After all, there was another Michelangelo already famous during Caravaggio's lifetime so another name was needed for him.

The text written by John spike is scholarly and straight forward, but there remain many unanswered questions about this strange artist. While the events of Caravaggio's life are vividly told, the text also explains and illuminates each painting through interesting alalyses. Spike tends to be factual and does not speculate much on the mysteries surrounding this dark figure. If you want to be as much entertained as educated on this artist, you might enjoy reading a "companion piece" of sorts: Peter Robb's "M, the Man Who Became Caravaggio". Robb's book is highly speculative, but a well-researched (and fun) boigraphy that porbes the dark side of Merisi's life that I found very convincing in its conclusions. (Not everyone does, however.)

One of the reasons I wanted to buy this admittedly expensive book was because it also contains a CD Rom with the "complete catalog" of all of Caravaggio's work. I was disappoined when I opened the CD Rom because I had expected to find all the paintings themselves in digital form, but there are none on the CD Rom except the cover painting from the book. The CD Rom is otherwise all-text which requires Acrobat Reader (provided with the CD ROM.) But I soon got over the disappointment because the book itself does such a good job of showing this magnificent artist's work so vividly, beautifully, and completely.

This is no ordinary art book. You will treasure it and be proud to show it to friends. It is a fine book produced with the most exquisite techniques of bookbinding. Simply Gorgeous!