The Lost Painting in Around the World in 80 Books

Sep 08, 2010 Kay rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: italy, audiobooks, art_architecture, nonfiction

An interesting blend of art history and detective story, author Jonathan Harr focuses on the handful of scholars, including two students, who found evidence of the lost painting in question, Caravaggio's "The Taking of Christ." He concentrates most of all on Francesca Capelletti, who along with another art history, Laura Testa, was most responsible for doing the tedious legwork of tracking what had happened to the lost painting. Another man, an art restorer working at the National Gallery in Dub An interesting blend of art history and detective story, author Jonathan Harr focuses on the handful of scholars, including two students, who found evidence of the lost painting in question, Caravaggio's "The Taking of Christ." He concentrates most of all on Francesca Capelletti, who along with another art history, Laura Testa, was most responsible for doing the tedious legwork of tracking what had happened to the lost painting. Another man, an art restorer working at the National Gallery in Dublin, was ultimately responsible for finding the painting, where it had languished for years in plain sight in a small Jesuit monastery, but it is Francesca who is at the center of this tale.

Harr's approach is novelistic, and at times it seems he is attempting cast Francesca in the role of a heroine in a thriller. Unfortunately, this technique doesn't really mesh very well with the actual events, which involved a lot of long, hard digging through dusty archives of a decrepit palazzo and various libraries. The book seems to at one moment be constructing "scenes" between the characters, describing their interactions and personality with verve, then lapsing into rather dry sections detailing the actual research being done and the state of Caravaggio scholarship in general. Interspersed throughout the book is a condensed biography of the artist himself, who was a romantic figure, a rebel and a bit of a brawler.

On the whole, the author manages to weave a fairly compelling narrative from these disparate parts, but I have to confess I felt a bit impatient when he seemed to be constructing "scenes" of what took place among the major "characters."

I listened to an audio version read by Campbell Scott, whose delivery was a rather bland, hushed monotone. I suppose the best thing that can be said for his reading is that it wasn't distracting and that he was able to pronounce all the Italian names and phrases fairly competently. I did wonder, though, if I would have enjoyed this book more if I'd read rather than listened to it. ...more

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Apr 12, 2010 Erica rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, art-and-society

I discovered Caravaggio while pursuing my BFA in university. I was immediately taken by his dramatic application of shadows and light (what he is of course known for) and loved discovering his paintings. After a run-in with a strange old man who told me about this book after I told him I was an art major in college, I was intrigued. If only I knew about this story while in college in Ireland, I would have went to Dublin to see this painting!
For such a fascinating and true story, the writing sty ...more

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