M : The Man Who Became Caravaggio

Deliciously gossipy biography in a vividly journalistic style. Robb has certain quirks and takes a defiantly back-to-basics approach. Unable to find the name that contemporaries universally used for Caravaggio, he refers to him as 'M' throughout; and he gives the paintings crisp, curt titles. Caravaggio swaggers through these pages: devil-may-care, quick for a fight and sexually omniverous. It's the kind of book people either love or hate. I happen to love it for the way it utterly disregards conventional artist biography; and it's impossible to find a book which better evokes the brutally violent world of backstreet 17th-century Rome.

For goodness' sake don't let this be the only book you read about Caravaggio, but DO let it inject some mischief and fun into your study of his stunning paintings; and let it be a reminder, too, that 'great art' is not something abstract which floats ready-made above the seedy world which the rest of us inhabit, but is something which is itself created in and through that world - which, here, Peter Robb brings rivetingly to life. I think it's fantastic! Naughty, but VERY nice.

Straightforward biography, meant for a lay audience. Goes into detail about the political situation at the time and stuff like that. Somewhat fanciful in its interpretations and analyses of the paintings, but takes a bold position on the blatant eroticism of a lot of them, which was welcome compared to the pussyfooting of a lot of more academic texts.

https://donut-donut.dreamwidth.org/905861.html

Powerful book about a powerful but also fragile painter written in a powerful style. It's just been a major reading experience. Very different from a history of art book: the writer has qualities of a novelist, but clearly goes about his research in a most thorough manner.
I looked at each painting on the web and each became much more meaningful after having read about it in the book. A new way of looking at Caravaggio ( 'M') comes about. I now wish to see the canvases which are in South Italy, Sicily and Malta.
The organization of the book is interesting ( quotes, refs, list of pictures, paragraphs, sections, typography, elisions close to speech).
I'd also found an earlier read, Peter Robb's "Midnight in Sicily" of very high quality — show more recommended to me in Palermo by a Scottish professor who spoke perfect Italian. show less

A fascinating story of Caravaggio's brutal life, and we get the feeling that this was a rather violent man. Lots of papal politics, duels. Brilliant recreations and passionate renderings of Caravaggio's paintings coupled with a biography of a man about whom little is really known. Robb makes the case that Caravaggio is the founder of modern art.

Once you got used to Robb's style it is an interesting read. It gave me a new appreciation for Caravaggio's work. I read part of it in Naples and saw The 'Seven Acts of Mercy' and 'Transfixion of Ursula' while there ans the book made me seek out others on the internet.

Though recent news about discoveries of Caravaggio's death (i.e. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(18)30571-1/fullt... puts paid to some of the speculation in the final chapter, so little is known about the artist that anyone writing about him will be tempted to fill in gaps.

This book was in GREAT need of a substantive editor. Too long, too dense. Just too everything. I pity the person that has no familiarity with Caravaggio that picks up this book. That person would hate the painter well before the first hundred pages are finished. It's only redeeming quality is of the painting descriptions. But even then, they go on and on and on. Peter Robb is clearly in love with his subject, that is for sure.