A Life Sacred and Profane

Caravaggio

'Action-packed, magisterial ... Caravaggio's life was every bit as bloody, sexy and attention-grabbing as the paintings themselves and Graham-Dixon is a man who knows the paintings better than almost any' The Times 
 
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio lived the darkest and most dangerous life of any of the great painters. The worlds of Milan, Rome and Naples through which Caravaggio moved and which Andrew Graham-Dixon describes brilliantly in this book, are those of cardinals and whores, prayer and violence. On the streets surrounding the churches and palaces, brawls and swordfights were regular occurrences. In the course of this desperate life Caravaggio created the most dramatic paintings of his age, using ordinary men and women - often prostitutes and the very poor - to model for his depictions of classic religious scenes. Andrew Graham-Dixon's exceptionally illuminating readings of Caravaggio'spictures, which are the heart of the book, show very clearly how he created their drama, immediacy and humanity, and how completely he departed from the conventions of his time.

Caravaggio has rarely been seen in such depth and such relief as in this marvellous biography. Andrew Graham-Dixon reads Caravaggio's paintings with the habits and assumptions, thoughts and fears of his contemporaries so that we see and feel the paintings more acutely and intensely than before. The man and his work emerge enriched and enlivened

Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum

Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane gave me immense pleasure and provided constant delight. It is a thrilling lesson in the art of seeing, a sensual exploration of the shadows of Caravaggio's sometimes violent but always Christian world, a detective story with a highly satisfying ending. Andrew Graham-Dixon's ability to have a reader see a painting through written language is a rare and precious gift. The book's rigour and integrity are obvious. I trusted every word and was sorry to turn the final page

For more than twenty-five years, Andrew Graham Dixon has published a weekly column on art, first in the Independent and more recently, the Sunday Telegraph. He has written a number of acclaimed books, including A History of British Art and Renaissance, and is twice winner of the Hawthornden Prize, Britain's top prize for writing about art. He is one of the leading figures in broadcasting in the UK, having presented seven major television series on art for the BBC.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio lived the darkest and most dangerous life of any of the great painters. The worlds of Milan, Rome and Naples through which Caravaggio moved and which Andrew Graham-Dixon describes brilliantly in this book, are those of cardinals and whores, prayer and violence. On the streets surrounding the churches and palaces, brawls and swordfights were regular occurrences. In the course of this desperate life Caravaggio created the most dramatic paintings of his age, using ordinary men and women - often prostitutes and the very poor - to model for his depictions of classic religious scenes. Andrew Graham-Dixon's exceptionally illuminating readings of Caravaggio'spictures, which are the heart of the book, show very clearly how he created their drama, immediacy and humanity, and how completely he departed from the conventions of his time.

Andrew Graham Dixon

Graham-Dixon's amazing discoveries will surprise and delight ... the best biography of Vermeer and the most complete analysis of his artwork that has ever been published

This is impressive detective work ... Graham-Dixon give[s] us the deepest and most rounded portrait of Vermeer we are ever likely to have ... [he] is the best parser of painterly effects since the late Robert Hughes

A powerfully persuasive investigation into the intellectual and devotional world of Vermeer and his circle. Painting by painting, the riddle of the Sphinx is masterfully unravelled ... Andrew Graham-Dixon trawls the archives, lays out new evidence, links pictures never linked before, and teases new meaning from signs, symbols and sitters ... His reading of the paintings is revelatory

Densely researched and highly original .... this book is an extraordinary portrait, flooded with light and colour, and a splendid unfolding of the pressure of meaning in everyday life; in other words, it emulates the special charge of Vermeer’s paintings

With the skill of a good showman and the meticulousness of a scholar, Graham-Dixon sets out to illuminate the elusive life of Johannes Vermeer ... There are few better writers to take on the task

A Life Lost and Found

The paintings of Johannes Vermeer are some of the most sublime in the history of art. Yet until now they have, like the life of Vermeer himself, defied explanation. Following new leads, and drawing on a mass of historical evidence, some of it freshly uncovered in the archives of Delft and Rotterdam, Andrew Graham-Dixon paints a dramatically new picture of Vermeer, revealing many of the painter’s hitherto unknown friendships as well as his previously undetected allegiance to a persecuted, underground radical movement. 
 
In this revolutionary reassessment of nearly all of Vermeer’s most beloved works – including The Girl with a Pearl Earring, A View of Delft and The Milkmaid – our image of him is transformed from an isolated and mysterious figure into an artist at the nexus of a web of philosophers, financiers, patrons, preachers and regents, giving rich new insight into one of the most enigmatic figures in art history.

Andrew Graham Dixon

Praise for Vermeer

Graham-Dixon's amazing discoveries will surprise and delight ... the best biography of Vermeer and the most complete analysis of his artwork that has ever been published

This is impressive detective work ... Graham-Dixon give[s] us the deepest and most rounded portrait of Vermeer we are ever likely to have ... [he] is the best parser of painterly effects since the late Rob ...

A powerfully persuasive investigation into the intellectual and devotional world of Vermeer and his circle. Painting by painting, the riddle of the Sphinx is masterfully unravelled ... Andrew Graham-Dixon tra ...

Graham-Dixon's amazing discoveries will surprise and delight ... the best biography of Vermeer and the most complete analysis of his artwork that has ever been published

This is impressive detective work ... Graham-Dixon give[s] us the deepest and most rounded portrait of Vermeer we are ever likely to have ... [he] is the best parser of painterly effects since the late Rob ...

A powerfully persuasive investigation into the intellectual and devotional world of Vermeer and his circle. Painting by painting, the riddle of the Sphinx is masterfully unravelled ... Andrew Graham-Dixon tra ...

Graham-Dixon's amazing discoveries will surprise and delight ... the best biography of Vermeer and the most complete analysis of his artwork that has ever been published

This is impressive detective work ... Graham-Dixon give[s] us the deepest and most rounded portrait of Vermeer we are ever likely to have ... [he] is the best parser of painterly effects since the late Rob ...

A powerfully persuasive investigation into the intellectual and devotional world of Vermeer and his circle. Painting by painting, the riddle of the Sphinx is masterfully unravelled ... Andrew Graham-Dixon tra ...

Books by Andrew Graham Dixon

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