Latest Read

I'm halfway through a book about the Italian artist Caravaggio. I reserved
the book thinking it was more of a biography than an art history text, but I'm being pleasantly surprised.

What I'm surprised to learn is how religious art was created as an aid to prayer and meditation. The commoner would meditate on the the painting and put themselves into the story. That answers a question I always had as to why the great artists mostly paint anachronistically. That's why one sees pictures of the Madonna dressed like Mary Queen of Scots.

So I'm making my way through this 450 page book which is mostly about art. I'm almost halfway and the book is due back in a week. It is weird to read about Rome, the eternal city where I walked and visited the churches, the squares, the neighborhoods and the ghettos. The city is a museum with its art displayed in every chapel, church, cemetery and plaza. I hope to return in the spring.

Maybe by then there will be a new Caravaggio. Maybe his next fresco will be "The Holy Family Escapes To Egypt In A Punto."