Caravaggio

Lorenzo Pericolo is Associate Professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Warwick, UK. David M. Stone is Professor and Director of the Curatorial Track PhD Program in the Department of Art History at the University of Delaware, USA.

• Contents: Introduction: the Caravaggio conundrum, Lorenzo Pericolo and David M. Stone; Caravaggio betrayals: the lost painter and the ’great swindle’, David M. Stone; Caravaggio’s painting technique: a brief survey based on paintings in the National Gallery, London, Larry Keith; Caravaggio’s Portrait of Maffeo Barberini in the Palazzo Corsini, Florence, Keith Christiansen; Touching is believing: Caravaggio’s Doubting Thomas in counter-reformatory Rome, Erin E. Benay; Caravaggio’s Death of the Virgin, Giulio Mancini, and the Madonna Blasphemed, Frances Gage; Talking pictures: sound in Caravaggio’s art, Catherine Puglisi; Caravaggio’s angels, Steven F. Ostrow; Caravaggio and the ’truth in pointing’, Jonathan Unglaub; Caravaggio the barbarian, Philip Sohm; The bottom line of painting Caravaggesque, Richard E. Spear; Galileo Galilei and Artemesia Gentileschi: between the history of ideas and microhistory, Elizabeth Cropper; Perfectly true, perfectly false: cardsharps and fortune-tellers by Caravaggio and La Tour, Gail Feigenbaum; Rembrandt and Caravaggio: emulation without imitation, H. Perry Chapman; Interpreting Caravaggio in the second half of the twentieth century: between Galileo and Heidegger, Giordano Bruno and Laplanche, Lorenzo Pericolo; Bibliography; Index.

'... a strong and engaged spectrum of essays by leading scholars that reflects the range and depth of Caravaggio scholarship today. It constitutes a milestone contribution to our understanding of this artist and his complex historical reception, as well as the range of approaches currently at work in the study of early modern European art.' Genevieve Warwick, University of Edinburgh, UK and Editor, Art History 'This is a distinguished collection of original essays by well-established scholars of Italian Baroque art and Caravaggio in particular. It is remarkable for the diversity of questions asked and methodological resources deployed in answering them. Such is the sureness of scholarship that underpins each essay, however, that there is little to no contradiction among them. Taken as a whole, the volume of essays contributes to a fuller understanding of Caravaggio that is greater than the sum of its excellent parts.' Charles Dempsey, Professor of Italian Renaissance and Baroque Art Emeritus, The Johns Hopkins University, USA 'The ancestor of this volume is unmistakably Genevieve Warwick's Caravaggio: Realism, Rebellion, Reception ... The inclusion of several 'stars' of the discipline, some of them featuring in both collections, the ambitious framework and the guaranteed future importance make Reflections and Refractions an obvious successor.' Oxford Art Journal 'Matters of technique, attributions, and patronage are dutifully explored ... empathy, sound, touch and Caravaggio's critical fortunes receive enlivening treatment.' Art Newspaper 'This collection of 14 essays by recognized experts presents thoughtful and authoritative discussion of crucial aspects of Caravaggio’s character, his oeuvre, and his milieu. ... these essays will shape future Caravaggio studies. Recommended.' Choice '... riveting in its insights, breathtaking in its original methodologies, and standing out as an unsurpassably comprehensive foray into Caravaggio's art.' Seventeenth-Century'This volume ... does stand out from the mass of other recent publications both in the distinction of its contributors and the nuanced and scholarly grounding of its arguments within historical and artistic content. ...[It] provides a welcome variety of potential approaches to the study of Caravaggio and seventeenth-century art in general, and will be of particular value in introducing students to the methodological possibilities that the artist stimulates.' CAA Reviews