
The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece
A decaying palazzo on a hilltop near the Adriatic coast, and in the basement, cobwebbed and dusty, an archive unknown to scholars. Here, a young graduate student from Rome makes a discovery that inspires a search for a painting lost for almost two centuries. The artist was Caravaggio, a revolutionary painter beset by personal demons. Four hundred years ago, he drank and brawled in the taverns and streets of Rome, in and out of jail, all the while painting transcendent works. He rose from obscurity to fame and wealth, but success didn't alter his violent temperament. 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. This quest is a synthesis of history and detective story.
- Publisher
- Random House Digital, Inc.
- Genre
- Topics
Awards
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current InterestShortlisted(2005)
Other awarded books from Jonathan Harr
- A Civil Action (1998)1 win · 19 score
If you liked The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece, you could also like these

Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane (biography of Caravaggio)
Andrew Graham-Dixon
0 wins · 4 score
The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velázquez
Laura Cumming
1 win · 8 score

Michelangelo's Last Paintings
Leo Steinberg
0 wins · 4 score

Velázquez: Painter and Courtier
Jonathan Brown
0 wins · 4 score

Giacometti: A Biography
James Lord
0 wins · 4 score

Rembrandt's Eyes
Simon Schama
0 wins · 3 score

Bernard Berenson: The Making of a Connoisseur
Ernest Samuels
0 wins · 12 score

The Sale of the Late King's Goods: Charles I and His Art Collection
Jerry Brotton
0 wins · 4 score

A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917–1932
John Richardson
0 wins · 4 score

Picasso’s War: How Modern Art Came to America
Hugh Eakin
0 wins · 3 score

The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
Daniel Mendelsohn
1 win · 15 score

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World
Christopher de Hamel
1 win · 9 score

Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries
Meyer Schapiro
0 wins · 4 score

Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair
John Bossy
1 win · 8 score

Francis Bacon: Revelations
Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
0 wins · 2 score
Similar Topics

Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse, the Conquest of Colour, 1909–1954
Hilary Spurling
1 win · 12 score
Art history
Pre-Columbian Art
Jose Alcina Franch
1 win · 5 score
Art history
Arts in America: A Bibliography
Bernard Karpel
0 wins · 4 score
Art history
Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane (biography of Caravaggio)
Andrew Graham-Dixon
0 wins · 4 score
Art history
Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic Tradition: Friedrich to Rothko
Robert Rosenblum
0 wins · 4 score
Art history
Seeing Through Clothes
Anne Hollander
0 wins · 4 score
Art history
A Life of Picasso: Volume 1. The Prodigy, 1881–1906
John Richardson
0 wins · 3 score
Art history
Goya
Robert Hughes
0 wins · 3 score
Art history
Venice: Lion City
Garry Wills
0 wins · 3 score
Art history
The Grand Affair: John Singer Sargent in His World
Paul Fisher
0 wins · 1 score
Art history