5 comments about Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles (Eminent Lives).

1. A great little book that covers what is known about a true bad boy of art, a tormented genius that challenged the accepted art of his time and changed the direction of painting, not something lightly done in those times. For this he was applauded, sought out, paid very well; he respond with bad judgment and madness. This book hits all the highlights and story points a non-art professional would want with being bogged down in too much 'art philosophy' that books on artists sometime drop into making it hard for an amateur to wade through. This is an excellent intro to Caravaggio. You should read this and then follow it up with The Lost Painting: A Quest For A Caravaggio Masterpiece, the amazing and true story of how one of Caravaggio's lost paintings was found in the 1990s.



2. This was a good book because it made me curious about Caravaggio. I subsequently bought another book that was a much more thorough biography of Caravaggio.



3. Francine Prose writes well and with a light ironic touch but this slim volume adds little to what we already know about Caravaggio. At a little over 100 pages and with only a handful of color illustrations the book amounts to little more than an extended essay of Ms. Prose's reactions to Caravaggio's major works. There are very many better books showing the paintings and Prose doesn't go into the camera obscura technique that Caravaggio undoubtedly used, giving his paintings an almost photo-realistic representation of his subjects.
   
   That Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was a brawler with a passion for picking fights worthy of "Fight Club" who combined erratic behavior with some sublime paintings is hardly an insight. A much better treatment of the life and psychology of the artist appears in Peter Robb's 1998 "M: The Man who Became Caravaggio" which curiously is unreferenced by Prose.
   
   Although Prose notes that Caravaggio broke away from the stylized poses and unearthly lighting of the mannerists, I don't think she clearly explains his genius.



4. Francine Prose's "Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles" is part of a series of short biographies called "Eminent Lives" in which famous authors write about great historical figures. The aim of the series is not be produce scholarly or definitive works; instead it is to offer the reader a gateway into the works and importance of the subject to inspire further exploration and thought.
   
   Francine Prose is best-known as a novelist. She offers in this book an elegant short guide to the great Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573 -- 1610). Caravaggio's story is one of the most romantic and tantalizing in art. He moved to Rome as a young man of 21 and established his reputation as a painter of importance, turning early in his career to paintings of religious themes. But Caravaggio's life was tumultuous, violent, and brutal. He was never without his dagger, even when he slept. He brawled and fought and consorted with the low life of Rome, and was forced to flee the city after killing a man in a dispute that involved a bet over a game of tennis. In exile, Caravaggio continued to live violently, to flee from place to place, and to paint masterpieces. Prose captures the tension between Caravaggio's tortured life and his artistry. She writes:
   
   "The life of Caravaggio is the closes thing we have to the myth of the sinner-saint, the street tough, the martyr, the killer, the genius -- the myth that, in these jaded and secular times, we are almost ashamed to admit that we still long for, and need. .. Each time we see his paintings, we are reminded of why we still care so profoundly about this artist who continues to speak to us in his urgent, intimate language, audible centuries after the voices of his more civilized, presentable colleagues have fallen silent". (p. 13)
   
   Prose did not get me very far into Caravaggio's life. She is much more successful in describing the paintings, which she does in good detail for a short book. The book includes 11 color plates of some of Caravaggio's masterpieces, from the beginning to the end of his career. Prose has helpful things to say in helping the reader to understand these works and the circumstances of their creation -- she helps the nonspecialist learn to look at and respond to a painting. I found her especially good in discussing Caravaggio's paintings of the "Calling of Saint Matthew" -- where she eloquently shows the artist depicting a conversion experience -- and its companion work, "The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew." Prose also discusses well many paintings that are not reproduced in the book. In order to get the most from these discussions, the reader will need to find these paintings in another source -- this book has as its goal, after all, encouraging further exploration of Caravaggio.
   
   Prose finds Caravaggio's greatness lies in his honesty, directness, and naturalism. She stresses how is works communicate directly with the viewer. Prose also emphasizes how Caravaggio used common people and places and the tough street life with which he was familiar in his paintings, including the use of rough laborers, common dwellings, gypsies, and prostitutes. Caravaggio's work combined elements of violence and low life with deep spirituality as he explored the mysteries of faith, conversion experiences,loneliness, and martyrdom. Caravaggio's brilliance as a painter, and the highly modern tension his work suggests between the spiritual and the mundane, are reasons why many people will continue to be fascinated by his work.
   
   Prose's book doesn't capture fully the reasons why Caravaggio's work continues to live and to move people. But her book will encourage reflection upon and further exploration of the work of this great and troubled artist.
   
   Robin Friedman



5. We purchased "Caravaggio: Painter of miracles" in preparation for a tour to ITALY dedicated to the works of Caravaggio that we found in Rome, Naples and Florence. It was an excellent preparation.
   Excellent sketch of Caravaggio's life, and overview of his opus. The author's clear and aggressive prose fits Caravaggio to a T. The text was easily read and exciting in it's coverage of things Caravaggio.
   I recommend the book to any person interested in Caravaggio and I intend to pursue other works by the author Francine Prose.

5 comments about The Diary of Melanie Martin: or How I Survived Matt the Brat, Michelangelo, and the Leaning Tower of Pizza (Melanie Martin Novels).

1. Having traveled to Italy with my family when I was twelve, The Diary of Melanie Martin called back dozens of similar memories of all the museums which were endured with the promise of gelato and of the delicious food which Weston describes to mouth-watering perfection. Reading this book, I kept on wishing it had been around for my family vacation so that my brother and I could have played "Point out the Naked People" during our museum tours; now I can only wholeheartedly recommend it to every member of a family planning a trip to Italy or just looking for a funny and truthfully-written book too perfetto to be missed.



2. A must read with the monalisa, sistin chapel, and boots the cat. Also it has ton of poetry. The book makes your mouth water for more.



3. I read melanie martin, and it was sensational!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I wanted to learn about Italy, and she helped me learn about it. Read this book, and you'll wanna read the other three book too.



4. The Diary Of Melanie Martin is a book about a young girl called Melanie. She flies to Italy with her family on an airplane when she had never been out of the U.S.A. She loved the thought going to a foreign country, but things didn't turn out how she expected... I liked this book and all the characters in it. My favorite part of the book was when Melanie just went back home to the U.S.A. She had realized a lot about her family and learned some important values. Melanie inspired me to be nicer to my sibling, as she did in the book. I definitely recommend this book to anybody who has a sibling, or who has never been out of his or her country. In this book, she gives the lesson about trying new things and taking risks. I am sure that anybody who reads this book will learn some useful information about life! Enjoy!



5. My 10 year old daughter loves all four of the Melanie Martin books. She cannot put them down. Not only is she entertained, but also has learned a few things about other countries. As a teacher, I highly recommend the Melanie Martin books. I sure hope Mrs. Weston keeps adding more to this series.
   Melissa Lombardo

5 comments about The Electric Michelangelo (P.S.).

1. This is without a doubt one of the finest novels I have ever read. The writing is pure heaven, the metaphors and similes are creative divinity--where does she get them? She is so highly gifted and so young that she can look forward to a wonderful career and you can be sure that I will follow her progress.
   Yes the novel can be heavy going at times but the beauty of her story and her talent as a writer just kept me wanting more and I earmarked so many passages because they were the finest, among the best poetry that I have ever read, her imagination and facility with language is stunning, not to mention the level of research that she did.
   A wonderful and rare performance--Bravo!



2. If you like Dickensian writing, then this will be a good read for you. Fascinating story, though dark. Meticulously written. I found myself slogging through this novel with some unresolved plot around Riley Eliot, Cy's mentor and Renna Parks, his mother and with Grace. It is a book to be read slowly and savored with a pint. There are gaps in the timeline...time at war, recovering from wounds, and Cy reminiscing on unstated sinister deeds.



3. I couldn't resist this 2005 novel when I heard it was about a tattoo artist. The fact that it was writen by Sara Hall, a Brit born in 1974 and a Booker Prize finalist with a fresh new voice in literature, made it even more appealing.
   
   From the very beginning I was captivated. Ms. Hall paints pictures with words and stirs emotions. And most of the emotions she stirs are disturbing and sometimes bordering on the grotesque. The story is compelling too, beginning in the seaside town of Morecambe, England, where working class consumptives whose lungs were destroyed by the mills and the coal mines, often took their one-week vacation in the quest for good clean sea air. Indeed, Ms. Hall was raised a few towns away and her descriptions of a widow hotelkeeper and her young son Cy the early part of the 20th Century introduced me to a time and a place that I will never forget. I will also never forget the main character, Cy, who grows up in the town where he apprentices to a foul-mouthed hard-drinking tattoo artist with a garrulous nature and larger-than-life persona.
   
   Later, our hero travels to America, where he sets up tattooing in Coney Island. It is the 1930s now, and Coney Island is in its heyday. Even though it was across the ocean from Cy's native Morecambe, it was a similar seaside resort catering to the appetites of a working class population looking for the outrageous and bizarre as a break from their own lives of struggle during the depression. Here, Cy meets Grace who does a horse act and even manages to sneak the horse into her Brooklyn apartment. She's a refugee from war-torn Europe, her background is a mystery and she, too, is larger than life. She wants an outrageous total body tattoo, and this act, with all its needles and inks and pain, is described in exquisite detail as an intimate connection between these two potential lovers. How it all plays out is not what I expected. There's an act of violence. There's an act of revenge. And then there are the years that pass.
   
   Eventually, I was left with a feeling of discomfort as well as completion. And I was also left with the feeling that Sara Hall is an extremely talented writer and that we will hear a lot more about her in years to come. Naturally, The Electric Michelangelo is not for everyone. But if you like a novel with a fine writing style, in-depth complex characters and a sense of looking at weird and offbeat side of history, you'll love this book.



4. This novel is breathtaking.
   
   I found the writing to be exciting with just the right amount of embellishment and it has a beautiful flow. The subject matter is painstakingly researched and the settings are wonderfully textured. The plot is dark, complex, and fascinating. When I found out it was only the author's second novel, I was amazed. This is a masterfully crafted novel for someone so young.
   
   This is easily one of the most intriguing books I have read in over a year. I highly recommend this book for anyone who appreciates beautiful use of language.



5. THE ELECTRIC MICHELANGELO by Sarah Hall was a very good character story of the Bildungsroman variety. Young Cyril Parks matures through a series of life's lessons beginning with his mother's tuberculosis hotel, adolescent high-jinks, and a non-traditional apprenticeship with a scurrilous tattoo artist, Eliot Riley. From there he ventures into the world "on his own," to find love and success, or at least his own definition of both. The first half of the novel is set in a sleepy little English seaside town, and the second half in New York's Coney Island shortly before World War Two.
   
   Sarah Hall is an up and coming master of prose, and in this work she has added delightful character descriptions reminiscent of Lawrence, Faulkner, or James.
   
   For those experienced with the world of tattoos, or for anyone who has ever seriously considered one, this story will surely be compelling.
   
   I bought this based on Amazon reviews and now it is a book I highly recommend.

No comments about Vasari's Lives of the Artists: Giotto, Masaccio, Fra Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian.

4 comments about Death Penalty USA: 2005 - 2006.

1. I'm a really big fan of Court TV and this book is exactly what Nancy Grace would love to be able to report about. I'm probably one of the first to get this book and I've only just begun reading it but if you're like me you and fascinated by really gruesome killings then this is a must read book. My favorite killer so far is this Jimmie Ray Slaughter. He's one really sick dude!



2. I am pleased to have purchased this book which according to the publisher is the first in a series of books detailing the case histories of all convicted inmates executed in the 21st century by the people of the United States. I note that each case history juxtaposes details of the capital crime with the capital punishment and always includes hard to find information regarding the disposition of co-defendants. I know of no other source that provides such a wealth of information.
   
   Finding the book to be well written and easy to read I commend the authors for including case citations to both published and unpublished court opinions something that is not easily accessible to the lay person and very often difficult or unduly costly to those of us fortunate enough to have access to legal search engines like Lexis and Westlaw. In my opinion this book is one of very few criminology books that will appeal to both the scholar and the lay person. I especially enjoy the fact that the authors have been careful not to interpose their opinions in a subject that is certain to generate a strong emotional response in the reader. Obviously I look forward to the next addition in this series.



3. As a Baptist Minister I am happy to say that I have purchased this book for my personal library as this is a book that has most certainly affected my view of capital punishment. While there is no doubt in my mind that most if not all of the executed people discussed in this book are sinners and indeed guilty of the horrible crimes with which they have been charged and seemingly deserving of being locked up forever, I am now unsure how Americans, the most advanced society in the world, benefit from having our government execute people who are either clearly insane or so sick and tired of being incarcerated that they volunteer to be executed. What then is the point of another killing?
   
   The authors of this book don't give any simple answers to this moral dilemma but they sure do a fine a job, perhaps almost too good a job, of making you think and ponder this question and cause you to reflect on another very difficult question: should the death penalty be abolished altogether?



4. about capital punishment in which the two authors have done an outstanding job of recreating the capital crimes and the legal proceedings that ultimately resulted in the execution of 59 men and one woman in 2005 and 53 men in 2006 by the most advanced country on the planet. The writing is appropriately dry and the facts are kept at unemotional level which help to make the book appeal to people like myself who want to evaluate the totality of each murder on a case by case basis without having to get caught up in a debate about capital punishment. While at times the amount of information is simply overwhelming I must say that I am pretty impressed with this book which I think provides an interesting social commentary of America that makes you wonder just how advanced we really are.

5 comments about Caravaggio: Colour Library.

1. This book contains many beautiful full page photos of the works of Caravaggio. Each painting is accompanied with a brief explanation. References and comparisons are made to other famous works by great artistic masters. A great book to begin your art book collection!



2. I have recently returned from the met and observed the great colour used by Caravaggio and was inspired to by the book. This contains a great of information and has great paintings on my favourite artist--Caravaggio. God bless



3. This is a nice overview of the work of Caravaggio.. and the price is very good - I saw a similar collection (though it was hardcover) for nearly $100 - I am satisfied with this general overview for much cheaper. I think the colors are pretty good - and the artwork is, of course, timeless!



4. Someone made a reference in 1999 that this is an 80 page book. It is 127 pages and filled with quality color plates. The paper's a bit thin, but certainly adequate, as is the text. I have just finished reading 'The Lost Painting', and wanted to peruse some of the works discussed in the book (a fascinating read and/or listen with the audio book). Another reviewer noted this is as a wonderful book to begin a collection. The publisher, Phaidon, really puts out some fine materials. I own three of their publications now, one being '50 Self-Portraits' and another on Tadema. If you have an inclination to dwell awhile on the stunning legacy of Caravaggio, this should more than do the job.



5. I've seen nicer books coming in at several hundred dollars but for the ~$5 you really can't beat this one Plenty of beautiful full color plates this makes an excellent student edition and a reference book for home. If you're purchasing for an all out art reference library you should look into a different edition.

No comments about Michelangelo : Life, Letters, and Poetry (Oxford World's Classics).

5 comments about Caravaggio.

1. My library contains many various volumes on the subject of Caravaggio--fiction, biography, fictionalized biography and photo surverys of his works--but if I were allowed only one book on this most extradordinary painter and his life I'd take "Caravaggio" by John T. Spike. In this weighty large-format picture-book Mr. Spike has given us the most complete look at the artist and his works currently available, presented in graceful depth so as to engage any interested reader and art enthusiast regardless of the nature of his commitment. It's unusual to find such an authoritative colaboration of art historical expertise and first quality illustration as we have here, a book to read, study and savor.



2. My husband and I just came back from Italy and we had to have a Caravaggio book. His painting in Vatican museum was especially memorable! I picked this book and it is very good. I agree with the earlier comments that some (not "many") pictures are poor quality (too red), but many photographs are very good, nice size for an art book and very important - it is an interesting and detailed research.



3. Great book on the greatest of all Italian painters. Glorious plates. And the text is a pretty good bio.



4. The reproductions are excellent. The binding is fine and the cover handsome. The writing is solid academically. I would have liked the book to have had more information on the artist and his life. Much is left to be done in the study of Caravaggio. His life still seems to be quite mysterious. His probable use of optics and mirrors in his work is touched on and needs further exploration. This book provides a good introduction to Caravaggio and his paintings in a handsome package.



5. 
   the quality of the research and the color of the paintings are outstanding.
   Also the CD-ROM has an unbelievable amount of information on the artist's
   works and their provenance.
   Dr.John T. Spike's 20 years of research is shared with the reader and is so readable and engaging.

4 comments about Michelangelo (Icon Editions).

1. In _Michelangelo_, Hibbard presents a unbiased account of Michelangelo's life in an enjoyable mix of historical narravitve and critical and contextual analysis. The writing is approachable with a minimum of high-brow art jargon. Hibbard also refrains from diving too deep into speculation about fine points such as sexuality and politics. This book is suited for those desiring an end-to-end introduction to the man and his art, or for those who have forgotten 90% of art survey 101, like me.



2. I am using this book for a college level course in Art History and am finding it very useful. The cronological format and detailed events throughout Michelangelo's life are both very helpful and I am learning quite a lot just from this one book. I do wish that there were color plates to go along with the text *there are black and white images, though*. Otherwise, it is highly educational and an interesting read. A very good buy!



3. There is probably no greater art historian in the second half of the 20th century than Howard Hibbard and this book is one of his best. Professor Hibbard, who has also written books on Caravaggio and a study of Poussin turns his attention to Michelanglo. This is not a rehash of The Agony and Ecstasy, Professor Hibbard's interest is in the work and the artist and not a study of the outward events of this great artist's life. I found Professor Hibbord's criticism insightful and interesting. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in the renaissance.



4. 
   If you were to read only one text dealing with the great Michelangelo and his art, this would be the book. It is a succinct biography in which one also finds clear and well chosen discussions of the artistic works of the great Florentine. It would be fair to say that Professor Hibbard is a graceful guide to these works--he shows us the key elements of the sculpture, painting and architecture that made Michelangelo the preeminent figure of the Renaissance. And he presents them to us as the artist's life unfolds, so that we can understand the challenges met and problems solved at various stages in Michelangelo's development.
   
   The book is filled with a large number of black and white photographs as well as plans and drawings which, together, help the reader understand each of the works being discussed. Indeed, the reader would be hard pressed to find more than a handful of opposing pages that do not have one or more illustrations. For those who are so inclined and long to see more of each work, they are titled so clearly that a quick search on line can bring plenty more to look at. But the illustrations provided in the book are more than sufficient for the reader's understanding.
   
   If you are looking for a shocking expose of Michelangelo the man, with all of his secrets revealed (warts and all!), then you do not want to read this book. Professor Hibbard discusses Michelangelo's personality and personal life in detail, but always in the context of his creations. He writes with a deft and gentlemanly reserve that allows the reader to accept the facts without drawing unreasonable conclusions.
   
   The conversations about the well-known works - the Pieta, the David, the Sistine Chapel ceiling and Last Judgment - are all clear and helpful. The on and off again relationships with various Medici and Popes provides a helpful understanding of how and why some of the artist's projects were unfinished, or completed in terms altogether different from their conception.
   
   The discussions of the architectural contributions of Michelangelo are very good, and provide the reader with an appreciation of the sculptural qualities of these larger than life sculptures. Indeed, Hibbard's discussion of the Bibliotheca Laurenziana stairway and St Peter's are the best sort of architectural criticism to be found anywhere.
   
   At the end of the book, but separate from the extensive bibliography, is a section called "Notes for Further Reading", which, if followed, could benefit the reader who wants to know more.
   
   If you find this review hepful, why not read some of my other reviews! Happy reading!

No comments about Michelangelo, Drawing, and the Invention of Architecture.