Summary: Publisher Summary 1 The wild persona of the late-sixteenth-century artist, who captured the dark, violent spirit of his age better than any of his contemporaries, is well-documented in this biography of Caravaggio by the author of Midnight in Sicily. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.   Publisher Summary 2 A New York TimesNotable Book of the Year As vividly and unflinchingly presented herein with "blood and bone and sinew" (Times Literary Supplement) by Peter Robb, Caravaggio's wild and tempestuous life was a provocation to a culture in a state of siege. The end of the sixteenth century was marked by the Inquisition and Counter-Reformation, a background of ideological war against which, despite all odds, brilliant feats of art and science were achieved. No artist captured the dark, violent spirit of the time better than Caravaggio, variously known as Marisi, Moriggia, Merigi, and sometimes, simply M. As art critic Robert Hughes has said, "There was art before him and art after him, and they were not the same." Robb's masterful biography "re-creates the mirror Cravaggio held up to nature," as Hilary Spurling wrote in The New York Times Book Review, "with singular delicacy as well as passion and panache."   Publisher Summary 3 A New York TimesNotable Book of the Year As vividly and unflinchingly presented herein with "blood and bone and sinew" (Times Literary Supplement) by Peter Robb, Caravaggio's wild and tempestuous life was a provocation to a culture in a state of siege. The end of the sixteenth century was marked by the Inquisition and Counter-Reformation, a background of ideological war against which, despite all odds, brilliant feats of art and science were achieved. No artist captured the dark, violent spirit of the time better than Caravaggio, variously known as Marisi, Moriggia, Merigi, and sometimes, simply M. As art critic Robert Hughes has said, "There was art before him and art after him, and they were not the same." Robb's masterful biography "re-creates the mirror Cravaggio held up to nature," as Hilary Spurling wrote in The New York Times Book Review, "with singular delicacy as well as passion and panache." Peter Robbwas born in Australia and has lived in Naples and southern Italy for most of the past two decades. His first book, Midnight in Sicily, was a New York TimesNotable Book and a New York Public Library Book of the Year. A New York TimesNotable Book of the Year As Peter Robb vividly and unflinchingly presents here, with "blood and bone and sinew" (Times Literary Supplement), Caravaggio's wild and tempestuous life was a provocation to a culture in a state of siege. The end of the sixteenth century was marked by the Inquisition and Counter-Reformation, a background of ideological war against which, despite all odds, brilliant feats of art and science were achieved. No artist captured the dark, violent spirit of the time better than Caravaggio, variously known as Marisi, Moriggia, Merigi, and, sometimes, simply M. As art critic Robert Hughes has noted, "There was art before him and art after him, and they were not the same." Robb's masterful biography "re-creates the mirror Cravaggio held up to nature," as Hilary Spurling observed in The New York Times Book Review, "with singular delicacy as well as passion and panache." "[Robb's] biography . . . comes across almost like an eyewitness account. His commentaries on the paintings convey a kind of informed passion in confrontation with genius . . . His account achieves both intimacy and vibrancy because of the richness of layering, its nonstop accumulation of analyzed detail."鈥擱ichard Bernstein, The New York Times "Robb's ambitions are lofty and, plainly put, it is hard not to be seduced by his prose."鈥擳he Washington Post "Partisan, sharply personal, and well worth reading."鈥擳he Wall Street Journal "Passionate, perceptive . . . [Robb] succeeds brilliantly in bringing to life one of the handful of figures in art history whose genius blazed so brightly that it illuminated an entire age and changed forever the course of European art."鈥擳he Baltimore Sun "It is clear that Caravaggio is Robb's oyster, and he makes him ours, too."鈥擳he Boston Globe "That rarest of hybrids, a cerebral thrill ride, and its indulgences are more than balanced by the brilliance of insight."鈥擳he Village Voice "A feast of art appreciation, storytelling, and witty speculation."鈥擝ookpage