Caravaggio, or more accurately Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), was a legend even in his own lifetime. Notorious bad boy of Italian painting, the artist was at once celebrated and controversial: Violent in temper, precise in technique, a creative master, and a man on the run.This work offers a comprehensive reassessment of Caravaggio-s entire -uvre with a catalogue raisonn-f his works. Each painting is reproduced in large format, with recent, high production photography allowing for dramatic close-ups with Caravaggio''s ingenious details of looks and gestures.Five introductory chapters analyze Caravaggio''s artistic career from his early struggle to make a living, through his first public commissions in Rome, and his growing celebrity status. They look at his increasing daring with lighting and with a boundary-breaking naturalism which allowed even biblical events to unfold with an unprecedented immediacy before the viewer.
