The brilliance of Caravaggio: four paintings in focus

Abstract

"One of the most renowned European painters of all time, Caravaggio rejected the idealizing style of many of his contemporaries, instead meshing a bold naturalism with a theatricality that accentuates the dramatic intensity of his compositions. Written by the Toledo Museum of Art's first curator emeritus, Lawrence W. Nichols, The Brilliance of Caravaggio: Four Paintings in Focus sheds light on what makes Caravaggio's art so extraordinary. The catalog reviews the artist's career, biography, and the reception of his art in his own time, while examining more closely four stellar paintings from the early years of his career in Rome: The Cardsharps (ca. 1595), Kimbell Art Museum; Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy (ca. 1595-96), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; The Musicians (1597), Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Martha and Mary Magdalene (ca. 1598), Detroit Institute of Arts"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Director's foreword / Adam Levine -- Acknowledgments / Lawrence W. Nichols -- "Michelangelo da Caravaggio, who is doing extraordinary things in Rome" / Lawrence W. Nichols -- Selected bibliography.