Annabel Howard

Excellent Caravaggio 101
Review of the hardcover edition (2016) from the "This is... Series" on artists

I was curious to read more about Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) after reading Alvaro Enrigue's wild novel Sudden Death in which one of the story arcs relates a fictional tale of the artist playing a tennis match against Spanish poet Francisco de Quevedo using a tennis ball made from the hair of the executed Anne Boleyn.

As wild as Enrigue's novel is, it barely scratches the surface of Caravaggio's real-life story which involves everything from defying church and secular authorities, the murdering (by duel) of a rival, escaping into exile, hiding out in various cities & islands including Malta (where he manages to get himself knighted), escaping from an inescapable prison in Malta, trying to redeem himself to his patrons and creditors, all the while inventing a modern art whereby future painting was never the same again.

Annabel Howard's 80 page board-bound book is not lengthy but is sufficient to provide the basic life story while providing a few dozen plates of Caravaggio's best known works along with an illustrated story drawn by Iker Sposio to accompany the main dramatic set pieces of the text.… (meer)