Selected Product:
| The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece
Hardcover
Author: Jonathan Harr
Publisher: Random House
Release Date: 2005-10-25
ISBN-10: 0375508015
ISBN-13: 9780375508011
List Price: $24.95
Average Customer Rating:
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ISBN-10: 1400096278
ISBN-13: 9781400096275
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Museum of the Missing: A History of Art Theft
ISBN-10: 1402728298
ISBN-13: 9781402728297
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The Lost Painting
ISBN-10: 0375759867
ISBN-13: 9780375759864
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Museum of the Missing: A History of Art Theft
ISBN-10: 1402728298
ISBN-13: 9781895892796
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
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 didn’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 others–no one knows the precise number–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 Christ–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 Caravaggio’s strange, turbulent career and the astonishing beauty of his work come to life in these pages. Harr’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 (Harr's previous book, A Civil Action, was made into a John Travolta movie), Harr doesn't plump up hi tale. He almost never foreshadows, doesn't implausibly reconstruct entire conversations and rarely throws in litanies of clearly conjectured or imagined details just for color's sake. . .if you're a sucker for Rome, and for dusk. . .[you'll] enjoy Harr's 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 wouldn't 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 Economist
Slow developing, lacks surprises
| Customer Rating: | | I had high hopes for this book based off the reviews but after getting in about 100 pages I was still waiting for it to get interesting. It's a fairly fast read but I was left wanting more. There's no real mystery to where the story is going; the author tries to add in some drama but it really doesn't come off very well. By the end I just wanted it to be over, it just couldn't hold my attention because the story was so bland. |
Meh
| Customer Rating: | I suppose the story of a long-lost masterpiece could be interesting. This tale, however, was not compelling enough to warrant a full book. Harr first wrote this as an article and that was probably plenty. He admits that he needed a project in mind in order to be accepted to a fellowship abroad and this is what he came up with.
The tale focuses entirely too much on Francesca Cappelletti, an art student who, while researching the provence of another Caravaggio work, finds a ledger entry mentioning "The Taking of the Christ" (this book's subject). She makes an effort to find the painting based on the clues she unearths, but is unsucessful. The paiting is eventually found by a restorer completely unrelated to Francesca; he stumbles across the painting by chance, no thanks at all to Francesca's research. Why is she included in this book as such a major player? She did nothing to bring "The Taking" closer to discovery. I guess Harr assumed a 24 year old woman would be a more fun protagonist than a 50 year old man.
This is why the book should have been left as an article. Harr was required to provide too much filler (do we care that Francesca marries the man who accompanies her to Scotland? I think not) and while it is an easy read, it's ultimately a "who cares?" experience. |
I loved it (and so did five of my friends)!
| Customer Rating: | The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece
For anyone who loves art, especially Caravaggio, mysteries, and Ireland, this is a must read. Couldn't put it down. It is especially interesting how the search for the painting is attacked from two ends: the researchers who are looking for the painting and the owners who don't know what they have. If, after having read the book, you don't book the first plane to Dublin and drop into the National Gallery of Art just to see the painting, you are really missing a treat. |
Intriguing Art Mystery
| Customer Rating: | As an earlier reviewer noted, many scholars acknowledge that there probably are several missing Caravaggio masterpieces lying about forgotten and neglected.
And, indeed, just as I began reading this book, a November 2006 news report announced that a painting owned by Queen Elizabeth II had been revealed to be a lost work by the Italian master Caravaggio.
The picture, which has been in the Royal Family's possession for about 400 years, had been dismissed as a copy, being obscured by varnish and dirt. It had been left in a storeroom at Hampton Court for decades until experts from the Royal Collection set about restoring the piece. After they spent six years studying the painting, they announced that is "The Calling Of Saints Peter and Andrew", a genuine Caravaggio and one of only 50 surviving canvases by the 17th century artist.
Reports estimated the painting, which was first bought by Charles I, sold and then reacquired by Charles II, could be worth more than £50 million --$100 million at current exchange rates!
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Reads like a mystery.
| Customer Rating: | | I wasn't sure if this was fact or fiction. It reads like a mystery story. It grabs you, and keeps you intrigued throughout. It's a kick to learn that it's all true! Great read! |
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