Caravaggio: The Artist and His Work
Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness” (c.1604-1605), by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Photo courtesy of the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, by Jamison Miller Largely due to “Bodies and Shadows: Caravaggio and His Legacy,” on view through Feb. 10 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,” Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) is enjoying unprecedented attention. As Sybille Ebert-Schifferer notes in her abundantly illustrated monograph on the artist, there were 350 new publications about him that emerged on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of his death. The current volume, plus the catalogue – by J. Patrice Marandel and others – that accompanies the LACMA show, pushes the number of recent articles and books even higher. And so one has to wonder, is there anything new that can be said about this Italian painter that hasn’t been said before? If there is, it’s probably here. Ebert-Schifferer seems to live and breathe Caravaggio, and has been turning out publications about him for years. Among the first orders of the day, she reads us the riot act: This will be a no-nonsense book, and her avowed aim is to cut through the patina of misinformation that has accrued to the…
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