"Caravaggio's Lost Painting"

Reading more like a historical novel than an art history book, “The Lost Painting” by Jonathan Harr, first takes the reader to an Italian village atop a hill overlooking the Adriatic coast. There, in the basement of a derelict palazzo, two young art historians, Francesca Cappellette and Laura Testa, discover a clue to the painting, “The Taking of Christ”. This magnificent Caravaggio had been lost to the art world for over 200 years.

The clue—a single entry in a listing of a bill of sale—leads the researchers to Ireland and on to the grime-covered masterpiece in a house owned by Jesuit priests.

This true detective story is brought alive by the skillful weaving of several narratives—the artist’s life and the researchers’ quest. Writing not for the art historian, but for the lay reader, the author describes the methods used to tract the artwork through history; details how originals are distinguished from forgeries and copies; and explains how an abused and neglected masterpiece is restored.

Throughout the book, the author relates the life of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1565 to 1609), a supremely gifted but troubled artist, who lived a bohemian’s life. Living from one commission to the next, he was noted for brawling in the taverns and on the streets of Rome, moving from one lodging to another and, finally, hounded by the authorities for murder.

Now acclaimed the master of the Italian Baroque, Caravaggio was much like our modern-day Spanish artist, Salvador Dali. His genius burst upon the art world with a creativity that astonished his contemporaries. Between 60 to 80 of his works are known to exist. Many others have been lost. An unknown number may yet hang forgotten in palace storerooms or on the walls of dark and dusty chapels in cavernous European cathedrals.

If there is a shortcoming to this compelling book it is that there are no pictures of either “The Taking of Christ” or the other painting discussed. As a reader, it would have been helpful to have on hand several of the Library’s books on the work of Caravaggio. Titles in the collection include “Caravaggio” by John Gash or the H.W. Janson book, “The History of Art”.

Readers are reminded that on Monday, June 5th at 7:00 PM, the Library will be hosting a slide presentation and lecture by Gregory M. Franzwa on the 1909 journey of Alice Huyler Ramsey across the U.S. in her dark green Maxwell DA. Franzwa, a founder of the Lincoln Highway Association, has traveled the route taken by Mrs. Ramsey from New York City to San Francisco.