New Book Release: After Caravaggio by Michael Fried
Last month witnessed the release of the latest book by scholar Michael Fried. Entitled After Caravaggio, it centers upon the long-lasting influence of Caravaggio across the field of European artists over the course of the 17th century. It is, in part, a follow-up to The Moment of Caravaggio (published 2010), which examined Caravaggio’s impact during his lifetime, particularly in the development of the “gallery picture” genre. As Fried has mentioned in relation to these two book projects:
“Part of the larger argument of both After Caravaggio and The Moment of Caravaggio is that in the first decades of the 1600s, Rome saw the rise of marvellous private galleries owned by nobles and cardinals, who bought and commissioned works by artists like Caravaggio… .Artists became aware of the natural competition that took place in those galleries, because if you hang pictures alongside one another, they will fight among themselves to find out which is strongest. Caravaggio was the big winner here.”
Click here for more from Fried as well as a brief excerpt from After Caravaggio. Click here to buy a copy.
Further Reading:
Michael Fried,” After Caravaggio: Michael Fried on the painter’s enormous influence” (artnewspaper.com, 26 July 2016).
Posted by Alexis Culotta