Street brawler, libertine, fugitive from justice, Caravaggio’s credentials for “transgression” were impeccable. Schama finds the ideal protagonist in his opening chapter on the tortured genius of Baroque Italy, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Their themes, according to Schama’s narrative, were not matters of aesthetics but rather of “salvation, freedom, mortality, transgression, the state of the world, the state of our souls.” Rather that picking the most picturesque or technically innovative masterpiece, Schama emphasizes the insights and impact of these artists on the societies in which they lived and worked. The deciding factor in selecting these seminal works is what Schama terms the “conversionary” power of their art. He chronicles the struggles of eight artists – Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso and Rothko – by focusing upon a key work of art by each of these embattled old masters. Schama’s recent book is the companion volume to the BBC television series of the same title. “An artist is not paid for his labor,” proclaimed the 19th century painter,” James McNeil Whistler, “but for his vision.”Īfter reading Simon Schama’s, The Power of Art, it is disturbing to reflect that scorn and incomprehension are often the only payment that visionary artists ever receive, at least during their lifetimes. The Power of Art by Simon Schama Ecco, 448 pp.
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