Caravaggio

The result of over 20 years of research by a leading authority on Caravaggio, this work reproduces every known work of the artist.

John T. Spike explores in detail Caravaggio's scandalous life and provocative work.

Placing Caravaggio within the broad panorama of society and ideas at the turn of the 17th century, the author sets a detailed stage for an artist who has been called "the first modern painter." Caravaggio (1571-1610) reflected in his canvases his own desires and spiritual crises to an extent no one ever had imagined possible, and he shocked his contemporaries by portraying the saints and virgins of Christianity with the faces and bodies of his companions and lovers in Rome's demimonde.

Accompanying the book is a CD-ROM in which all of Caravaggio's extant paintings, as well as lost and rejected works, are described.

Each entry specifies the work's medium, dimensions, location, and provenance, and provides an annotated bibliography of sources.

Most of the entries conclude with a brief technical analysis.