Description: The Rizzoli Art Classics series brings you Piero della Francesca, Titian, Caravaggio, and Velázquez, all in beautifully illustrated monographs, offering high-quality reproductions in compact, accessible volumes. These books feature a literary introduction by a renowned art historian, a thoroughly researched essay, and captions describing the artist's most famous canvases. A useful appendix section includes an extensive chronology of the artist's life and important historical events of his time; a compilation of writings by well-known historians, insight into each painter's stylistic development; a geographical table detailing the location of each painting in the book; and a concise bibliography with suggested further readings.With authoritative text by leading art historians, these lavishly illustrated editions provide fresh insight into the art and lives of some of the most fascinating artists in the history of painting.
Customer Reviews
Review Summary: Another Holy Sinner
Date: 2008-09-12
Details: This is what comes of reading Vladimir Nabokov's disturbing book The Enchanter; I find myself meditating on the delicate relationship between an artist's life and her/his work. I've reviewed the music of Johann Rosenmueller, a molester of choir boys, and the frescos of the Tuscan painter known as Sodoma, a bigamist who surrounded himself with pretty boys. Caravaggio was a great painter of the late Renaissance, a major innovator of 'chiaroscuro', whose work can be passionate and serene at the same moment. He was also a ruffian, a sexual rogue and a murderer.
The Rizzoli Art Classics series is a modest introduction to the artist, with fairly good reproductions, though small for a painter whose canvases were huge, and intelligent criticism/commentary. These days, of course, you can get more info and more photos of the paintings via Google, but the book will feel substantial in your hands.
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