Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles

Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles. Francine Prose. HarperPress. [pounds sterling]12.99. 149 pages. ISBN 978-0-00-723066-2. In extenuation for this book it must be said that it is one in a series of introductory, slight and relatively brief biographies. That does not excuse its weakness in structure, composition and style.

There are patches of serious research, as in the account of Caravaggio's patron, Cardinal del Monte, although the author writes with an all too subjective amorousness about the Cardinal's boy-musicians. Slapdash about provenances and the sources of quotations, she appears unaware that there are two differing versions, both by Caravaggio, of The Lute-Player. She does not seem to be closely acquainted, as the author of a monograph on him should be, with the whole range of late pictures Caravaggio painted in Malta and Sicily. The account of the artist's career is verbosely inarticulate: an over-colloquial and remorseless spate of banality. The long disquisition of 149 pages dispenses with either sub-sections or divisions, which would have given it at least a look of coherence. If one is looking for a simple introduction to Caravaggio, it will be found, at less than half the price, with chapters, chronology and ampler, and more accurate colour-plates, in Karin Grimme's contribution to the Taschen Books series. (D.B.)

COPYRIGHT 2007 Contemporary Review Company Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning