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| The Lost Painting | 
 enlarge | Author: Jonathan Harr
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 11764
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 0375759867
Dewey Decimal Number: 759.5
EAN: 9780375759864
ASIN: 0375759867
Publication Date: November 7, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 At First Annoying and Then Enchanting February 7, 2007
28 out of 30 found this review helpful
I really love history, and especially art history. A book about the finding of the long lost Caravaggio painting "The Taking of Christ" got me really excited. Then I started reading it. Evidently authors like Mr. Harr feel that most people won't pick up a book that is not fiction so he writes in a way that gives new meaning to the term "narrative history". At first he seems to want to write a novel. We go riding through the mountains seeing the scenery, experiencing the ocean breeze, pulling over to the side to let faster vehicles pass us by. Our brakes aren't too good, but now the road gets wider....etc. I am getting very impatient with this book about this time. This is novelistic fill that I am reading.
But then half way through the book a new day dawns. We no longer have to sit through a dinner where an art historian has ordered "an antipasto of mixed seafood marinated in olive oil and lemon juice followed by medallion of veal with lemon and capers and a plate of spinach repassato, cooked with garlic and oil" (actual quote). We now enter a rather fascinating world of art restoration spiced with biographical details of Caravaggio's life. Is the found painting really Caravaggio's? How do we determine if it is? The book now hits its stride and all the early fluff is forgiven. On balance it is a commendable book of art detection and restoration that is devoid of academic stodginess. Lots of fun once you get past the ocean breezes.
Great Artist, Good Story, Fair Writing March 3, 2007
19 out of 21 found this review helpful
Finding a lost work by a master artist is always riveting: a Michaelangelo drawing found stuffed in the archives of the Cooper-Hewitt in New York, a Cimabue is noticed casually hanging on the wall of a house. So also the discovery of a much looked for but long lost painting by the 16th-century Italian, Caravaggio. This is the focus of `The Lost Painting.' Yet despite the subject, the author almost manages to make it boring. Almost.
Harr recounts the stories of the scholars, most of them Italian, involved in the discovery of Carravagio's 'The Taking of Christ,' which, as is often the case with lost masterpieces, was hidden in plain sight. It's a tale that, for a few years in the 1990s, has its principal characters criss-crossing Europe, slowly piecing together clues, hiding some of those clues from each other, being generous and being selfish, and ultimately coming together when they realize the magnitude of their discovery. And at its center is the brief and violent life of Caravaggio. In short, it is a very human story.
Unfortunately the author's prose often lacks passion, an ability to convey the extreme emotions that his characters no doubt felt. It is almost as if, the outcome known in advance, his actors are simply going through the motions. Despite this, however, Harr's attention to detail and methodic unveiling of each new development enables the reader to fill in the emotional gaps. In short, it's a good story, solidly written, but you'll need to add a splash of your own imagination. Given that this book takes you across a continent and across centuries, and into the world of the dangerous, beautiful, and brilliant Caravaggio, that shouldn't be too hard.
Which is the real Caravaggio? January 29, 2007
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
I found this book interesting and absorbing. In less than three hundred pages you can learn a lot about the art world, art restoration, authentication of paintings, art history, and the Baroque artist Caravaggio. If like me, you want to see his other paintings, there is a web site called [...] that has all the paintings, their history, where they are, the artist's life, and more. I really recommend that as a follow-up to reading the book. I've gotten interested in these topics before, but usually through fiction by authors like Ian Pears and Aaron Elkins. You have the satisfaction here of knowing you are reading fact, all of these people are real. Yet the book is as fascinating as a novel and even has the unexpected twist at the end. This was an excellent read.
 Learning art March 7, 2007
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
This book is a fast read that teaches a lot! I knew very little of art history and never even heard of Caravaggio. The characters bring to life a story that we would otherwise be bored with on the History Channel. I love the way that you learn so much but get a good story out of it.
Loved it March 8, 2007
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
I loved this book, although I must admit up front that I have a master's degree in art history, and lived in Italy in grad school (and therefore very much drawn to books such as this one). My friends in my book group that are not art historians did not find it as irresistable as I did, but they all liked it very much.
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