audiobook The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece by Jonathan Harr in Arts-Photography

Description

An Italian village on a hilltop near the Adriatic coast; a decaying palazzo facing the sea; and in the basement; cobwebbed and dusty; lit by a single bulb; an archive unknown to scholars. Here; a young graduate student from Rome; Francesca Cappelletti; makes a discovery that inspires a search for a work of art of incalculable value; a painting lost for almost two centuries. The artist was Caravaggio; a master of the Italian Baroque. He was a genius; a revolutionary painter; and a man beset by personal demons. Four hundred years ago; he drank and brawled in the taverns and streets of Rome; moving from one rooming house to another; constantly in and out of jail; all the while painting works of transcendent emotional and visual power. He rose from obscurity to fame and wealth; but success didnrsquo;t alter his violent temperament. His rage finally led him to commit murder; forcing him to flee Rome a hunted man. He died young; alone; and under strange circumstances.Caravaggio scholars estimate that between sixty and eighty of his works are in existence today. Many othersndash;no one knows the precise numberndash;have been lost to time. Somewhere; surely; a masterpiece lies forgotten in a storeroom; or in a small parish church; or hanging above a fireplace; mistaken for a mere copy.Prizewinning author Jonathan Harr embarks on an spellbinding journey to discover the long-lost painting known as The Taking of Christndash;its mysterious fate and the circumstances of its disappearance have captivated Caravaggio devotees for years. After Francesca Cappelletti stumbles across a clue in that dusty archive; she tracks the painting across a continent and hundreds of years of history. But it is not until she meets Sergio Benedetti; an art restorer working in Ireland; that she finally manages to assemble all the pieces of the puzzle.Told with consummate skill by the writer of the bestselling; award-winning A Civil Action; The Lost Painting is a remarkable synthesis of history and detective story. The fascinating details of Caravaggiorsquo;s strange; turbulent career and the astonishing beauty of his work come to life in these pages. Harrrsquo;s account is not unlike a Caravaggio painting: vivid; deftly wrought; and enthralling.". . . Jonathan Harr has gone to the trouble of writing what will probably be a bestseller . . . rich and wonderful. . .in truth; the book reads better than a thriller because; unlike a lot of best-selling nonfiction authors who write in a more or less novelistic vein (Harrs previous book; A Civil Action; was made into a John Travolta movie); Harr doesnt plump up hi tale. He almost never foreshadows; doesnt implausibly reconstruct entire conversations and rarely throws in litanies of clearly conjectured or imagined details just for colors sake. . .if youre a sucker for Rome; and for dusk. . .[youll] enjoy Harrs more clearly reported details about life in the city; as when--one of my favorite moments in the whole book--Francesca and another young colleague try to calm their nerves before a crucial meeting with a forbidding professor by eating gelato. And who wouldnt in Italy? The pleasures of travelogue here are incidental but not inconsiderable." --The New York Times Book Review"Jonathan Harr has taken the story of the lost painting; and woven from it a deeply moving narrative about history; art and taste--and about the greed; envy; covetousness and professional jealousy of people who fall prey to obsession. It is as perfect a work of narrative nonfiction as you could ever hope to read." --The EconomistFrom the Hardcover edition.