Table of Contents

Art and Life; Catalog and Technical; Notes; Chronology; Bibliography; Index

About the Author

John T. Spike, an internationally respected critic and historian of art, received his doctorate from Harvard. He has recently published major books on the Florentine Renaissance, including Masaccio and Fra Angelico (both Abbeville and both also available in Italian and French editions). Since 1989 Dr. Spike has been General Editor of Abaris Books, publishers of The Illustrated Bartsch, the multivolume compendium of European prints executed before 1750. A resident of Florence, he has organized numerous exhibitions of Italian art.

Reviews

New publications celebrate the 400th anniversary of Caravaggio's death. Spike (A History of Western Art: From Prehistory to the 20th Century) relates Caravaggio's paintings to contemporaneous events as well as to his religious, political, and social surroundings in this lavishly illustrated catalogue raisonne. The accompanying searchable CD-ROM catalog includes extant, lost, and rejected paintings; discussions of iconography; medium; dimension; location; provenance; and an annotated bibliography. This second edition features a new preface, updated biography, additional illustrations, and comparative photographs and X-rays showing the artistic process. Fried (Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before) retains the style of his series of Mellon Lectures, on which his new book is based, while expanding the content. His central themes are Caravaggio's "internal dynamic" of the acts of creating the painting, finishing the work, and giving it over to the viewer. Fried, who uses Spike's first edition as a source, also explores "self-absorbed" paintings in which viewers do not participate vs. those into which they are invited. Both books offer indexes and endnotes; Spike's catalogue raisonne also presents comparative and technical illustrations. While Fried compares Caravaggio's work to that of artists as seemingly far afield as James McNeill Whistler and Henri Matisse, Spike takes the more traditional chronological approach. VERDICT Owing to differing approaches and content, both titles are recommended for special collections, art faculty and students, and interested general readers.-Nancy J. Mactague, Aurora Univ. Lib., IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.