Caravage

This monograph addresses Caravaggio's work from an entirely new perspective. Through a detailed analysis of the works, it studies the position assigned to the viewer by Caravaggio's painting and the interpretative effort required by the artist. Using the mirror as emblematic figure of reflexivity, the author reconstructs the experiences which led the painter to represent himself in his own paintings.
As a starting point, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas allows to ask key issues: how does Caravaggio call then keep the viewer's attention? The author then focuses on the genesis of these issues through the painter's first known works, most of them mirror-painted self-portraits, before moving the mirror issue in genre and religious paintings, before studying paintings known as "violent".