Caravaggio

Caravaggio was a brilliant artist who defied the aesthetic conventions of his time; his realistic portraits of the poor, the aged, criminals, and ordinary people would have a profound effect on generations of painters. Possessed of an equally defiant temperament, Caravaggio was on the run from the law at the time of his mysterious death. In Caravaggio, New York Times bestselling author Francine Prose offers an enthralling account of the life and work of one of the greatest painters of all time.

Born in 1571 near Milan, Michelangelo Merisi (da Caravaggio) was a successful artist, protected by his many wealthy and influential patrons. But he was also a man of the streets and fled Rome in 1606, after apparently killing another man. He spent his last years in exile, at once celebrated for his art and tormented by his enemies. In 1610 he received a pardon from the Pope, only to die on his way back home. With passion and sensitivity, Prose tells the story of this brilliant yet flawed man who was a true artistic innovator.

Francine Prose is the author of fifteen books of fiction, including the highly acclaimed Goldengrove. The novel A Changed Man won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Blue Angel was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. The nonfiction work Reading Like a Writer was a New York Times bestseller. She lives in New York City.

"Matching gorgeous prose to gorgeous artworks, Prose responds to each image as a moment of theatrical revelation, sensual or spiritual, and frequently both." -- Boston Sunday Globe