Andrew Graham-Dixon

I enjoyed this a lot, the art is cool to look at, there's a decent amount of information, it's mostly western art but at least there's a wide selection, yeah it's definitely an enjoyable book with cool art so here's some problems but obviously I liked it nevertheless:

Art is often small, sometimes tiny. I think this is the biggest flaw, although one that'd be hard to rectify easily given what the book is trying to do. Sometimes the layout is bad and they could definitely have expanded the reproductions. But a decent amount of stuff is decent sized and there were only a few bits where it really bothered me. Still, a magnifying glass would probably be helpful.

Mostly western art, as I said. Only a few spreads of art outside Europe/then the US. Not surprising and obviously there's space reasons for not going too wide but still it's a big omission. They do at least try and they have some stuff on like Chinese ink painting though so it's better than some.

Poor/orientalist/silly art criticism/bad politics. A lot of this is just normal stuff really and I'm only complaining cause I'm critical of a lot of these mainstream ideas. But one thing that struck me is this "primitivist" (garbage label, especially to describe a trained artist who "imitates" "primitive" art) who had a 14 year old Tahitian "mistress" who he painted in a sexual way and they didn't pass comment on it at all, just acted as if that's totally ok. Grossed me out but that seems the normal way of talking about this disgusting child abuser because hey he did good art!!! Ugh. I'll also note that the modern art descriptions and stuff are often absolutely laughable but tbh I hate a lot of the modern art stuff they have in this book so I guess I would say that.

But overall it's good.… (more)

I know it's a cliche, but facts about this artist's life are so few and far between he is very much like his own paintings: emerging briefly, every now and then, from the dark out into daylight.
   Details of his early life are particularly sparse - which made (to me at least) the first hundred or so pages of this biography hard going. There's plenty about Milan and Rome, folk art, archbishops and cardinals, but nothing substantial about the man himself. The result is peculiar: like a portrait painting without the portrait, all setting but no face. Once you get beyond that though, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio does begin to emerge - and what a man he is! For a start, I'd forgotten just how far ahead of its time some of his work really was: painted in the seventeenth century, St John The Baptist say, or David With The Head Of Goliath, could have been done in the twentieth.
   I was amazed, too, by his extraordinary life. He strode about the seedier parts of town dressed in a cloak and armed with a sword; he killed an opponent in a duel (although Graham-Dixon argues convincingly that this was accidental) and may have earned money as a pimp. The most astonishing image of all though (as unforgettable as any of his pictures) is that of the great-painter-as-fugitive on the run in fear of his life: fleeing from city to city - and, everywhere he stopped, painting a masterpiece.
   I'm glad I didn't lose patience during those first hundred pages because this is as enthralling a biography (of Caravaggio or anyone else for that matter) as I've ever read.… (more)

The painting of the immense fresco depicting the creation of the universe, the creation of man, and the creation of evil brought Michelangelo and Pope Julius II together. It was not an easy association; the Pope was notoriously difficult and it was only after much persuasion from the Pope’s emissaries that Michelangelo reluctantly agreed to take on the task.

Thus began the work that would consume four years of his life. The results of that work are the iconic panels that cover the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

This absorbing account of the artist and his work includes full-color panels of the Chapel’s artwork, drawings, and photographs. Extensive author notes and a bibliography are also included. Readers with an interest in art, in Michelangelo’s work, or in the creation of the masterpiece that is the Sistine Chapel will find much to appreciate here.

Highly recommended.… (more)