Caravaggio
Painter of Miracles
“Racy, intensely imagined and highly readable. . . . Prose brings to Caravaggio a fresh and unflinching eye.” —New York Times Book Review
A brilliant and successful artist, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio couldn’t seem to free himself of brawls and vendettas. Through it all, he produced masterpieces of astonishing complexity and power, defying the aesthetic conventions of his time. His use of ordinary people, realistically portrayed—street boys, prostitutes, the poor, the aged—was a profound innovation that left its mark on generations of artists. Francine Prose renders this brief but tumultuous life of the great painter with passion and acute sensitivity.
“Engaging and informative. . . [Prose] holds our attention by dramatically contrasting Caravaggio’s brilliance and tenacity with his bellicose nature and self-destructive actions.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“She excels in relaying what little we know of the artist’s personality, a complex mix of undoubted charisma but with an almost psychopathic urge for self-destruction…A fine biography”—Kirkus Reviews