Caravaggio: The Artist and His Work

Among the expansively divergent critical opinions regarding Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Ebert-Schifferer (Still Life: A History) offers this technically minded reckoning with the available research. A controversial and influential figure in his day, Caravaggio continues to incite debate 400 years later. Rather than accept the stories of the artist as merely an uneducated troublemaker (albeit a wildly talented one), making muses out of sex workers and young boys, Ebert-Schifferer instead strictly focuses her attention on historical documents and technical research. Beholden to incontrovertible evidence, and taking advantage of X-ray examinations of the paintings, the author finds her way to frequent insight, particularly when analyzing the spiritual content of significant works or expounding upon Caravaggio's own innovations with light. Many of the apocryphal stories at the heart of the artist's legend are dispelled, such as the common belief that he used the body of a drowned sex worker as a model. Even without this dramatic draw, Ebert-Schifferer manages an engaging read through a thoroughly academic subject, ultimately making a convincing argument that Caravaggio's oeuvre continues to deserve our attention, regardless of how often and with whom the artist brawled. Illus. (July)