description: As presented with "blood and bone and sinew" ( Times Literary Supplement ) by Peter Robb, Caravaggio's wild and tempestuous life was a provocation to a culture in a state of siege. The end of the sixteenth century was marked by the Inquisition and Counter-Reformation, a background of ideological cold war against which, despite all odds and at great cost to their creators, brilliant feats of art and science were achieved. No artist captured the dark, violent spirit of the time better than Caravaggio, variously known as Marisi, Moriggia, Merigi, and sometimes, simply M. As art critic Robert Hughes has said, "There was art before him and art after him, and they were not the same."
language: English
title: M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio
titlecomplete: M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio
characters: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
genres: Biography, History, Art History, Historical, Italy, Nonfiction, Art, Biography Memoir, Australia, LGBT
ratings_count: 6601
places: Naples, Milan, Lombardy
awards: awardedAt: 915177600000
name: Victorian Premier's Literary Award
category: Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: National Biography Award
publisher: Holt Paperbacks