Caravaggio, Francine Prose
Caravaggio, Francine Prose
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Caravaggio
Painter of Miracles

Author: Francine Prose

Narrator: Ann Richardson

Unabridged: 4 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/11/2020


Synopsis

Francine Prose's life of Caravaggio evokes the genius of this great artist through a brilliant reading of his paintings. Caravaggio defied the aesthetic conventions of his time; his use of ordinary people, realistically portrayed—street boys, prostitutes, the poor, the aged—was a profound and revolutionary innovation that left its mark on generations of artists. His insistence on painting from nature, on rendering the emotional truth of experience, whether religious or secular, makes him an artist who speaks across the centuries to our own time.

Born in 1571 near Milan, Michelangelo Merisi (da Caravaggio) moved to Rome when he was twenty-one years old. He became a brilliant and successful artist, protected by the influential Cardinal del Monte and other patrons. But he was also a man of the streets who couldn't seem to free himself from its brawls and vendettas. In 1606 he fled Rome, apparently after killing another man in a dispute. He spent his last years in exile, in Naples, Malta, and Sicily, at once celebrated for his art and tormented by his enemies. Through it all, he produced masterpieces of astonishing complexity and power. Eventually he received a pardon from the Pope, only to die, in mysterious circumstances, on the way back to Rome in 1610.


About Francine Prose

Francine Prose is the author of sixteen books of fiction. Her novel A Changed Man won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Blue Angel was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent works of nonfiction include the highly acclaimed Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, and the New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. A former president of PEN American Center, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Francine Prose lives in New York City.


Reviews

Overflowing in both talent and self-regard, Caravaggio (1571-1610) remains an enigma. He left behind no diaries or letters to convey his thoughts. Instead, contemporaries chose to chronicle his quarrels, profligate drinking and gambling, violent altercations and hurried escapes from vengeful faction......more

I knew little about Caravaggio before beginning this short overview of his life and works and now wish to read more about this talented and troubled man. I think this book achieves what it set out to do: while not excusing Caravaggio’s erratic and sometimes furious behavior, it ties his life with hi......more

Goodreads review by robin

The Sinner-Saint Francine Prose's "Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles" is part of a series of short biographies called "Eminent Lives" in which famous authors write about great historical figures. The aim of the series is not be produce scholarly or definitive works; instead it is to offer the reader a......more