The Lost Painting
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Editorial Reviews
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.
Customer Reviews
A good Read, 2009-08-22
by F. Alvergue (Eugene, OR)
Anyone interested in art history, and especially Carravagio's work, would enjoy this book. If the reader has visited Rome, it's all the
more intriguing. Harr has done remarkable research on the period and the known details of Carravagio's life.
more intriguing. Harr has done remarkable research on the period and the known details of Carravagio's life.
The lost chance, 2009-06-18
by Reader
There's nothing terribly or conspicuously *wrong* with this book, but there are several things that prevent it from being the wonderful read it could have been, being, as it is, based on a great story that should have ensured an absolute page-turner.
The first thing (which other reviewers have pointed out before me) is that Mr. Harr seems undecided on whether he wanted to write a novel or a work of nonfiction. He has written the latter, but trying (unsuccessfully in my opinion) to infuse it with some of the typical trappings of fiction thrillers, i.e. ending chapters with adrenaline-charged sentences or 'revelations', including a love affair, etc. This is unfortunate, because nonfiction, when presented in the right way (and not 'dressed up' as something else), can be as compelling as fiction. The example that comes most readily to mind is Deborah Cadbury's harrowing account of how the quest for Louis XVII, the boy king of France who went missing after the Revolution, was solved with the help of a DNA investigation. Unlike Mr. Harr, Ms. Cadbury didn't try to make the people in her book sound like characters from the Da Vinci Code.
This approach forces Mr. Harr to try to make the people in his book (who are all real) 'interesting' in the way that a writer of fiction tries to make his characters interesting. I couldn't have cared less about the love life of Francesca Cappelletti, the sexy Italian scholar on a motorbike --- whose affair with Luciano, by the way, must be the most boring 'romance' to have graced the pages of a book in decades. Neither did I care about the personal frustrations of art restorer Benedetti, or English scholar Mahon's aversion to being hugged by women. Most of these people actually come across as being rather petty (e.g. the two young female scholars' unkind behavior towards the aged Marchioness at whose residence they make their discoveries), but even with these human failings exposed they just don't seem to be very interesting.
The interspersion of a couple of chapters dedicated to Caravaggio's life felt a bit artificial, as if Mr. Harr was trying to fill up space. More substantial information about his life, or a better distribution of it throughout the book, would have been better.
The other problem I had with this book was its lack of passion. It doesn't sound as if Mr. Harr is in love with any of his subjects --- Caravaggio, Italian paintings, the world of art scholarship. This is a rather dull read, as if the work had been commissioned --- a view borne out by Mr. Harr's admission that he had originally written an article, but needed a book project in order to avail himself of an invitation to the American Academy in Rome. I didn't feel the passion that seeps through the pages of, say, Antonia Fraser's biographies, or Thomas V. Cohen's wonderful account of 'love and death in Renaissance Italy' (which covers roughly the same period in which Caravaggio lived).
Many reviewers have expressed disappointment in 'The Lost Painting' as compared with Mr. Harr's previous work, 'A Civil Action'. I can't comment on that, not having read it. All I can say is that 'The Lost Painting' is an informative read about a very interesting historical find, but don't expect an unputdownable book --- you'll be disappointed.
The first thing (which other reviewers have pointed out before me) is that Mr. Harr seems undecided on whether he wanted to write a novel or a work of nonfiction. He has written the latter, but trying (unsuccessfully in my opinion) to infuse it with some of the typical trappings of fiction thrillers, i.e. ending chapters with adrenaline-charged sentences or 'revelations', including a love affair, etc. This is unfortunate, because nonfiction, when presented in the right way (and not 'dressed up' as something else), can be as compelling as fiction. The example that comes most readily to mind is Deborah Cadbury's harrowing account of how the quest for Louis XVII, the boy king of France who went missing after the Revolution, was solved with the help of a DNA investigation. Unlike Mr. Harr, Ms. Cadbury didn't try to make the people in her book sound like characters from the Da Vinci Code.
This approach forces Mr. Harr to try to make the people in his book (who are all real) 'interesting' in the way that a writer of fiction tries to make his characters interesting. I couldn't have cared less about the love life of Francesca Cappelletti, the sexy Italian scholar on a motorbike --- whose affair with Luciano, by the way, must be the most boring 'romance' to have graced the pages of a book in decades. Neither did I care about the personal frustrations of art restorer Benedetti, or English scholar Mahon's aversion to being hugged by women. Most of these people actually come across as being rather petty (e.g. the two young female scholars' unkind behavior towards the aged Marchioness at whose residence they make their discoveries), but even with these human failings exposed they just don't seem to be very interesting.
The interspersion of a couple of chapters dedicated to Caravaggio's life felt a bit artificial, as if Mr. Harr was trying to fill up space. More substantial information about his life, or a better distribution of it throughout the book, would have been better.
The other problem I had with this book was its lack of passion. It doesn't sound as if Mr. Harr is in love with any of his subjects --- Caravaggio, Italian paintings, the world of art scholarship. This is a rather dull read, as if the work had been commissioned --- a view borne out by Mr. Harr's admission that he had originally written an article, but needed a book project in order to avail himself of an invitation to the American Academy in Rome. I didn't feel the passion that seeps through the pages of, say, Antonia Fraser's biographies, or Thomas V. Cohen's wonderful account of 'love and death in Renaissance Italy' (which covers roughly the same period in which Caravaggio lived).
Many reviewers have expressed disappointment in 'The Lost Painting' as compared with Mr. Harr's previous work, 'A Civil Action'. I can't comment on that, not having read it. All I can say is that 'The Lost Painting' is an informative read about a very interesting historical find, but don't expect an unputdownable book --- you'll be disappointed.
Art History Engagingly Disguised as a Detective Novel, 2009-02-02
by T. Anderson (Utah)
Jonathan Harr's "The Lost Painting," a step-by-step account of the history and discovery of Caravaggio's long-missing "The Taking of Christ," is a real page-turner. As some reviewers have noted, it is at times a little too novelistic for its own good, as when Harr meticulously details a certain art historian's eating preferences or belabors inconsequential facts about a student researcher's dilapidated car. But the book is so interesting and readable that those flaws are easily forgiven.
Most annoying to me was the author's refusal to document any of his research (excepting a partial list of works consulted, at the book's conclusion). I suppose this caters to the current tendency to write non-fiction with the same character development and narrative flow of fiction, and to conceal along the way any indication that the author is imaginatively reporting findings from interviews and scholarship--presumably in case a simple reference or reminder of that fact might traumatize the non-scholar or break the narrative spell. However readable the result, I can't help but wax nostalgic for the (apparently outdated) courtesy of a footnote in the text, so readers could more easily trace sources and items of interest. I'll admit, this tendency is more of an annoyance with books like Ross King's "Brunelleschi's Dome," which was filled with tantalizing bits of information begging to be further explored. But I don't think an occasional endnote in this book would have been too much to expect, even from an author who clearly aimed from the beginning at a "best-seller" audience. And a few pages of photographs would have enriched this book considerably.
That said, "The Lost Painting" is a fascinating tale that deftly interweaves the efforts and ambitions of scores of fanatic 'Caravaggisti' attempting to track down Caravaggio's painting and distinguish it from its copies. In fact, one of the book's many strengths is that it engagingly reveals to the non-academic the laborious and demanding, but often petty and cut-throat world of modern scholarship in the visual arts. I found myself constantly amused by the differences between this kind of research, which leads scholars across continents from one musty archive and museum to another, and the kind in why I engage, where most traveling takes place almost entirely within the pages of various readily-available books, and differs from scholar to scholar mostly in the itinerary of one's reading. And Harr does bring his interviewees and other characters convincingly to life. Perhaps the book's strongest virtue is its detective-story plotting and pacing, which is as flawlessly rendered as one could hope. Once I started reading, I could hardly put it down until I finished it. So don't start reading "The Lost Painting" unless you have a sunny chair in which to hibernate and day or two to kill.
Most annoying to me was the author's refusal to document any of his research (excepting a partial list of works consulted, at the book's conclusion). I suppose this caters to the current tendency to write non-fiction with the same character development and narrative flow of fiction, and to conceal along the way any indication that the author is imaginatively reporting findings from interviews and scholarship--presumably in case a simple reference or reminder of that fact might traumatize the non-scholar or break the narrative spell. However readable the result, I can't help but wax nostalgic for the (apparently outdated) courtesy of a footnote in the text, so readers could more easily trace sources and items of interest. I'll admit, this tendency is more of an annoyance with books like Ross King's "Brunelleschi's Dome," which was filled with tantalizing bits of information begging to be further explored. But I don't think an occasional endnote in this book would have been too much to expect, even from an author who clearly aimed from the beginning at a "best-seller" audience. And a few pages of photographs would have enriched this book considerably.
That said, "The Lost Painting" is a fascinating tale that deftly interweaves the efforts and ambitions of scores of fanatic 'Caravaggisti' attempting to track down Caravaggio's painting and distinguish it from its copies. In fact, one of the book's many strengths is that it engagingly reveals to the non-academic the laborious and demanding, but often petty and cut-throat world of modern scholarship in the visual arts. I found myself constantly amused by the differences between this kind of research, which leads scholars across continents from one musty archive and museum to another, and the kind in why I engage, where most traveling takes place almost entirely within the pages of various readily-available books, and differs from scholar to scholar mostly in the itinerary of one's reading. And Harr does bring his interviewees and other characters convincingly to life. Perhaps the book's strongest virtue is its detective-story plotting and pacing, which is as flawlessly rendered as one could hope. Once I started reading, I could hardly put it down until I finished it. So don't start reading "The Lost Painting" unless you have a sunny chair in which to hibernate and day or two to kill.
Very disappointing, 2008-12-03
by Maxtone Witherball
Now, I loved A Civil Action. But one of the main reasons that that book was so great is because it had terrific villains. The Lost Painting, on the other hand, doesn't have a single antagonist, unless you count time, which I don't.
Also, A Civil Action had a single madcap hero who relented never. The Lost Painting, by contrast, has at least three distinct protagonists (if you count the guy in the epilogue), who, for much of the tale, work serially and not together. Not to mention, they don't have much in the way of personalities.
These are the main reasons why the so-called quest for Caravaggio's Taking of Christ makes for such a bad story.
The only truly gripping part of the book is the epilogue. But this, alas, written prematurely as it is, provides no real conclusion, and so is also deeply unsatisfying.
2005 must not have been a very good year for nonfiction efforts, as the New York Times named this weak tea one of the five best.
Also, A Civil Action had a single madcap hero who relented never. The Lost Painting, by contrast, has at least three distinct protagonists (if you count the guy in the epilogue), who, for much of the tale, work serially and not together. Not to mention, they don't have much in the way of personalities.
These are the main reasons why the so-called quest for Caravaggio's Taking of Christ makes for such a bad story.
The only truly gripping part of the book is the epilogue. But this, alas, written prematurely as it is, provides no real conclusion, and so is also deeply unsatisfying.
2005 must not have been a very good year for nonfiction efforts, as the New York Times named this weak tea one of the five best.
A rare nonfiction glimpse into world of art investigation, 2008-08-17
by David F. Barton
Jonathan Harr brings you into the world of people toiling to authenticate a Caravaggio. Their integrity and dedication to their profession is revealing.
It is nonfiction so the ending lacks drama but we feel the satisfaction of the people involved.
It is nonfiction so the ending lacks drama but we feel the satisfaction of the people involved.
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Book Details
| Pages | 320 |
| ISBN | 0375759867 |
| Publisher | Random House Trade Paperbacks |
| Publication Date | 2006-11-07 |
| Sales Rank | #9767 |