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The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece
Unavailable
The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece
Unavailable
The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece
Audiobook6 hours

The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece

Written by Jonathan Harr

Narrated by Campbell Scott

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

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


From the Hardcover edition.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 25, 2005
ISBN9780739313213
Unavailable
The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece

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Reviews for The Lost Painting

Rating: 3.851581588807786 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really loved this book. Part detective story, part historical non-fiction and a bit of romance. Well written, engaging and educational!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A great example of the "lost painting turns up" genre, with lots of scholarly back-and-forth, conservation drama, masterpieces hiding in plain sight, and excellent biographical material on Caravaggio worked in.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Someone is asked to clean and restore a painting he suspects is an authentic Caravaggio. Is it, or is it just another early copy? He tells only a few colleagues of his suspicions. Instead of telling the world their suspicions, one of many ploys at answering this question is to curate a "Caravaggisti show"; in this way art done by followers of Carravaggio (aka Caravaggisti) can be secretly compared to the discovered painting -- all in order to try to conclude whether it's the real thing. Fascinating account of how this mystery is solved and a glimpse into the academic side of the art world. All true!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This account of the discovery of a long lost painting by Caravaggio is fascinating, and Harr manages to convey a lot of information about art history, Caravaggio, restoration of old paintings and the academic politics of Italy without ever stopping the flow of the story. The only thing this book lacks is a good reproduction of the painting in question.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Lost Painting referred to in the title is Caravaggio's Taking of Christ, one of three Caravaggio paintings commissioned by wealthy Roman Ciriaco Mattei. The painting wasn't lost in the sense of having been misplaced. Although it never left the possession of the Mattei family during its first 200 years, by the time it was sold in 1802, its identity as a Caravaggio had been lost to the passage of time and memories that weren't passed on to subsequent generations. Harr tells the story of the painting's rediscovery in the late 1990s through the research of two Italian students of art history and the educated eye of an art restorer.I particularly enjoyed the first half of the book describing the research of Francesca Cappelletti and Laura Testa, two graduate students in art history. Because of her friendship with a Mattei relative, Francesca was able to gain access to the Mattei family archives, where the women examined Ciriaco Mattei's account books and the periodic inventories of the family's possessions over the centuries. They also used government archives and conducted a thorough literature search, examining exhibition and auction catalogs and following footnote trails from the journal literature. I have used the same kinds of documents for family history research, and the thrill I felt when Francesca and Laura made their discoveries was similar to the thrill of discovering a link to another generation on my family tree.The audio recording included a bonus interview with the author, in which the author revealed that he learned Italian in order to conduct the interviews that form the basis for the book. Because the book is so reliant on the personal stories of the art experts and researchers involved in the rediscovery of the painting, Harr didn't want to conduct his interviews through an interpreter. The time he spent in language study was well spent. Harr's account is as thorough as an eye witness's. Enthusiastically recommended for anyone with an interest in art history or archival research.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The Lost Painting is a matter-of-fact presentation outlining the finding of Caravaggio's missing painting, "The Taking of Christ"; a painting that could not be located after its sale at auction in 1921. The book lacked depth and was a bit choppy. The author could have added more details concerning Caravaggio's life and work, the supplies he used (especially his paints), his process and restoration specifics. He touches upon all, but stops short, leaving the reader looking for more. Such particulars would not have taken away from this book; it would have made it more complete.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    For years, the 1602 Caravaggio painting The Taking of Christ was lost to art historians. Harr, in this tale, recounts how a group of European scholars (and even a few amateurs), come together to track down and identify the once-missing masterpiece. At times filled with interesting scholar-gossip, and at others rife with poignant vignettes of Caravaggio's life, the author treads the fine line between scholarship and sensational journalism. While the book limps to a finish, it was definitely a quick and interesting read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Non-fiction that reads like a thriller.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read the author's A Civil Action on Mar 8, 1998, and liked it very much--not too surprising since I have a natural affinity for legal subjects and trials. But I found this book about the search for a lost painting by Caravaggio just as attention-holding as I did Harr's prior work. The story is expertly told, guaranteeing that one's interest will be maintained all the way through the book. I do not know how the story could be better presented. One stands in amazement at the fascinating detail Harr elucidates in regard to art history research and art restoration--at least for me who knows nothing about either subject.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Lost Painting is a fast-paced romp through Rome, Dublin, London and Edinburgh in the search of a lost painting by Caravaggio. The artist and art history are short-changed, but if you are interested in the competitive world of art historians, restorers and academics, this is an excellent peek at how reputations are made and lost.Caravaggio was a paranoid nutbag who was forced to flee Rome when he killed a guy. Being a fugitive changed his personality only for the worse, but the guy could paint. Most of his paintings have been lost or destroyed over time and so the discovery of a new Caravaggio was enough to send the art world into a tizzy. This book had a limited scope, which allowed Harr to write a tightly plotted and exciting book about a fairly unexplosive topic.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a truly fascinating story about the discovery of a once-lost masterpiece by Caravaggio, The Taking of Christ. More than that, the book is about how the discipline of art history works - how research and scholarship and restoration go hand in hand and how important continued scholarship can be. Harr's writing is very quick-paced and easy to read, making a story that could be dense with names and dates and facts move along easily.As an archivist- and art librarian-in-training, I found this book tremendously helpful. I had never really understood why so many art libraries devote precious space to auction catalogs, but this story proved their usefulness to me. I will definitely be suggesting it to my friends in my program.However, for a book about art, there was a distinct lack of illustrations. A small photo of The Taking of Christ on the back cover helped in understanding composition and, to a degree, color and light, but it was too dark and too small to be truly helpful. The book also could have used an appendix that concisely traced the provenance of the painting or maps showing where the painting had gone in its travels.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I was sorry that this book ended so quickly. A wonderful real life mystery told by an excellent writer.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was selected as one of the 2006 best books by the NYT and I love Caravaggio paintings thought I would be entralled with book. It was somewhat of a disappointment.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Entertaining and suspenseful book about the discovery of a "lost" Caravaggio painting. Fast-paced and well-written.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great non-fiction. Caravaggio was known as a thug and thought to be a murderer in his own time. The book highlights some parts of Caravaggio's amazing life of artistic success, troubles, betrayals - at the same time that it chronicles the efforts of a young Roman art history student in the 1990s to find the lost Caravaggio masterpiece of the betrayal of Christ by Judas.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Fun and interesting. Non-fiction about the search for the real Taking of Christ by Caravaggio. The book introduces us to all the people involved with the find and their adventures. I've become interested in Caravaggio's work and hope to see one in person soon.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Rule of Four meets The Coffee Trader all based on the art world. Story about a man who happens on a painting that he believes to be important, and the process by which other people begin to believe the same thing. Writing is not stellar, but the story concept is good and you don't need to be an art lover or knowledgeable at all. I think this is based on a true story; the characters seem true to life. Not a slow read and perfect for an airplane.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I usually rate my books high, because I simply can't afford to buy books I'm not reasonably sure I'll like.But this is one of the few exceptions. It's very boring- for a mystery, there doesn't seem to be an actual villain. It's a bit like "The Da Vinci Code" with everything exciting taken out. The fun of stories about art thefts and art controversies is not usually all about an accurate and realistic portrayal of actual academic methods of searching/validating art. Because that's boring. He doesn't even give the characters interesting personal lives. I disliked his heroine too.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was an interesting story, but I wish I hadn't paid full hardcover price for it. It would have been much better condensed down to a long magazine article (as it was originally supposed to be). Harr's style is too journalistic, I found, to do well in a whole book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    (#48 in the 2006 book challenge) Hey, that's two books I've read about quests in a month! Good grief. This is a journalistic account of the (relatively recent) discovery of a Caravaggio painting that had been lost nearly since it was first created. It was all nice and artsy and all that, and I think it gave a fairly decent and not too dreadfully dull explanation about provenance and restoration techniques and such. There was one line, sadly toward the beginning, that absolutely set me off. I've debated whether or not to go into it, and decided my blood pressure probably doesn't need it, but I believe it's the sort of thing where the author felt it safe to synopsize a little tangent as a small aside, but the way he edited it down for size completely missed the point, but you wouldn't know what the point was anyway unless you have been enrolled in an art history program. It's probably safe to say that it isn't impacting too many people.Grade: B+Recommended: Very good for enthusiastic museum goers. It also had a great Italian feel to it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Exceptional non-fiction written with verve regarding the rediscovery of a lost Carravaggio painting. Fascinating story to with great style.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Two Italian graduate students find a clue in a dusty archive that puts them on the trail of a masterpiece by Caravaggio that has been lost to the world for 200 years. Along the way the reader learns about the restoration of priceless paintings and about the colorful life and violent end of the famous painter. The book is as much a page-turner as the DaVinci Code, but it is all true! People who liked fiction thrillers like The Club Dumas by Perez-Reverte, Shadow of the Wind by Ruiz-Zafon, and Possession by A.S. Byatt will probably enjoy this book too.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent book, excellent audiobook narrator. Although a major theme is the finding of one painting, as the reader is led through the search other stories are woven in to the mix, give a great overview of the theft that occurs in the art world. I highly recommend this book. Super easy listen, good book to "take you away" as you're driving I (don't go too far away.!!)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a fascinating account of the search for a lost painting of Caravaggio that takes the story from Italy to Ireland. Harr's story is as much about the people involved as the quest. Recommended for anyone interested in the history of art and artists, especially the detective work required for such research. This audiobook was a lucky find picked up at the library.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Is it a real Caravaggio? A fun romp across Europe and into the dusty world of restoration, this is part mystery and part art history. Harr manages to make this into a gripping story!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Another of my adventures into fictionalized art history, this time about the life of Carravaggio and finding ... you guessed it ... one of his lost paintings. I enjoyed it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When a wealthy Roman funds the research for several masterpieces, including Caravaggio's lost paintings, two of the researchers, university students, follow any lead they can find. One travels throughout Scotland looking for connections to the last known owner, and they search out the descendant to the first owner from 400 years ago, pulling strings to get a chance at the family archives. Meanwhile in Dublin, an Italian art restorer is sent by the National Gallery of Ireland to retrieve a dirty, old painting that has hung in a Jesuit home for years in desperate need of cleaning, and finds something very exciting.Lots of mystery, dead-ends, art experts and jockeying for advanced information, and some info about how great works of art are preserved. It seems strange that with all the talk about Caravaggio's works, especially The Taking of Christ, that the only image is a little one on the back cover.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Fun and light. Readers seeking a serious history of Caravaggio's work or a complete look at the business of finding, evaluating, and restoring paintings should look elsewhere. The author sometimes seems more concerned with evoking mood -- whether it's that of the present-day Italian art world or Renaissance Italy, than with anything else. But for the uninitiated -- like myself -- that might not be a terrible thing. The reader watches art historians pore through disintegrating records for the traces of lost masterpieces, surprisingly underpaid restorers bring them back to life, and hears a bit about this painter's brief, chaotic, and frequently sybaritic life. Harr also manages to portray a few of his subjects, especially Francesca and Laura, as fully-formed characters, and some of the novel's tension lies, for better or worse, in the choices that these two make about their love lives. "The Lost Painting" is, basically, a long magazine article. But it's not badly done, if one chooses to see it from that perspective, and it both informs and entertains well enough. The first-edition hardback, which I came across second-hand, is also a very elegant and well-designed little volume.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a very surprising non-fiction book. It read more like a historical mystery novel than a non-fiction true story about the art and the life of Michelangelo Caravaggio, a 16 century Renaissance painter. Caravaggio had a very short and tumultuous life, but he is famous for his bright and colourful paintings, and for the way he displayed light in his work. He often used self-portraits in his paintings. His paintings are hanging in galleries all over the world, but unfortunately a lot of them have been lost. This book is a book about the treasure hunt involved with trying to find one of his lost paintings. The book starts out with a young Italian graduate student discovering a record of one of his paintings that had been lost for almost two centuries. She discovers the origin of the painting in a dusty old family archive, and she is determined to try to trace where this painting is now. She manages to trace it all the way to Scotland, but then the trail is lost, until a very discerning art restorer discovers what he thinks might be "The Taking of the Christ" in a small Irish Jesuit mission. I am a newbie in the world of art and art restoration, so therefore this whole book was a revelation to me. Johnathan Harr made the story so captivating and so rife with tension and discovery that it held my interest throughout. Caravaggio and his beautiful paintings came alive for me as I read. This is why I adore non-fiction. When you find a book written with such skill and about such a captivating subject, it is a exciting and a revelation. A bygone era came alive for me, and I've been introduced to a whole new world.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr, is nonfiction about the search for the long-lost, supposedly "original" The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio. It was particularly interesting to read about the research done by art history graduate students in various libraries and archives, as well as the meticulous work of art restorers. Harr writes in a journalistic style, but lists numerous sources in his four-plus page bibliography, and took the trouble to learn Italian so he could conduct most of his research interviews in Rome in that language.