The website dedicated to the novels, now entirely FREE to download, entertaining true stories and favourite facts of the 2003 'Brain of Britain' Dave Stedman
Because of the many full colour illustrations in the original printed version, and other technical reasons, this book cannot be put on the website as a free download. Printed copies are still available on Amazon.
This highly original art historical faction novel probes the mystery of Caravaggio’s death in the context of a rivetingly told time travel adventure.
We meet face to face with the great 16th-17th century Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio, to be buffeted through the adventure by his towering genius and flawed personality. The story is a murder mystery woven around the true facts of Caravaggio’s life and told by a cynically humorous and world-weary modern narrator.
A compact time travel device brings Caravaggio kicking and screaming into the 21st century. It also spirits the narrator back four hundred years to meet celebrity suspects among Caravaggio’s fellow artists, friends, lovers and patrons. Clues are traced from period writings and paintings including Caravaggio’s own masterworks, which are reproduced so that the reader can attempt to solve the mystery themselves or simply gorge on the astonishing images produced by Caravaggio’s hand.
The story is taut and shamelessly scabrous in establishing the Rabelaisian relationship between the narrator and Caravaggio. Known facts about Caravaggio’s life are kept intact but the plot is ingeniously peppered with plausible inferences that intensify and enrich the dramatic and entertaining content.
It is a fact that Caravaggio murdered his love rival and incurred the death sentence from the state and vengeance from his victim’s family. It is a fact that Caravaggio’s body disappeared after his death despite the fact that he was the most famous artist in Europe. But if mute on Caravaggio’s actual cause of death in 1610 history seethes with motives and teems with suspects.
At the beginning of the 20th century an Italian art historian named Longhi was rooting through the paintings stored in the basement of the Uffizi Gallery. He came across a painting entitled Bacchus that astonished him with its skill, the frankly sensual imagery, and the imaginative treatment. He did research and discovered that the artist, Michaelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, had been forgotten for nearly 200 years, mainly because the people who had written early art biographies had known the man and couldn't stand him, so they 'airbrushed him out of art history'. It was understandable because Caravaggio was a very difficult, complex, aggressive and violent man. He was also an artist of undeniable genius. The fictional narrator of That Terrible Shadowing relates how he fell in love with Caravaggio's work at the age of 16 after coming across the Supper at Emmaus in the National Gallery in London. That is exactly taken from my own experience. When it came to choosing specialist subjects for the television quiz series Mastermind, Caravaggio was first on my list. His art smashed all conventions and he is arguably the most influential painter in the history of art. His Basket of Fruit is the first known real still life painting and began a craze in Dutch art that led to two centuries of lush Dutch masterpieces in the genre. His chiaroscuro style of deep shadow and brightly illuminated features revolutionised European art, especially in Italy but also in Spain where it influenced the likes of Velazquez and Ribera. Caravaggio used models from the streets of Rome and introduced a new immediate dramatic realism to religious art. Someone once wrote that modern art begins with Caravaggio. I think that is true. His life story reads like a thriller anyway. I found Caravaggio an irresistible subject and I allowed my imagination free rein. If you think you would enjoy a true biography of an incredible character wrapped up in a sort of free form time travel murder mystery, then try this. Some reviews on Amazon and other sources below.
Stedman has followed what seems to be an increasingly popular route in modern literature of positing 'non-academic' theories in the guise of works of fiction. Whether you enjoy this book or not will largely depend on the extent to which you buy into this approach and also the particular theory/speculation that is narrated.
I, for one, enjoy this particular medium for learning (or being inspired to learn) about historical times/figures etc. And this book offers an excellent exponent of the art.
The essential plot is somewhat tongue-in-cheek yet undertaken with a level of seriousness that enables the reader to suspend disbelief. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio has been rescued from imminent death by the Tralfamadorians - an alien race who have a fascination with the painter and his works. These aliens want to uncover the mystery of C's death which is postulated to be a murder case. The fascination the Ts have with human quiz shows has led them to believe that Stephen Madden (read Stedman - partial anagram but obvious allusion) - a winner of various quiz shows specializing in the life and times of Caravaggio - is an expert, or rather 'the' expert on Caravaggio and thus best placed to help them out with their investigation. Of course Madden lives four hundred years on from C's death. So, Merisi is sent, by the aliens using time travelling technology, into the future.
The rest of the book involves Madden being sent, via the time machine, into the late 16th/early 17th century to interview key figures in C's life and back again to the present to verify things with Merisi - who invariably causes mischief in the present while Madden is time travelling. This narrative keeps things ticking over nicely simultaneously giving us insight into post (or late)-renaissance Rome (as well as Malta later on) and providing amusing observations as to how things have changed since Merisi's day.
In the case of the latter aspect (contemporary vs past comparisons), as a reader, it helps to be British in this case. There is various witty commentary on British culture and politics including an extensive conversation that Madden has with Merisi on the sense in which the present British parliamentary system is democratic leading to utter bafflement in Merisi.
Ultimately, while I very much enjoyed this book, I suspect that its market may be narrow - probably it best suits British Caravaggio neophytes (like myself). Being British (or familiar with British culture) is somewhat essential to get the humour here, being new (but perhaps not absolutely ignorant) to Caravaggio's life and times is also probably important. There are many points where Madden is claiming to uncover interesting factors.
I have always been interested in Caravaggio - more so than any other artist. I enjoy contemporary art but he lived life on the edge in a way that our famous contemporary artists could only dream of. The book perfectly exhibits this. It is exciting and at times funny - due to time travel!. However it more importantly teaches the reader about art/history/life and death in an absorbing way. Enjoyed it more than any Dan Brown.
From the opening page to last, I could not put this book down. Every chapter thrilled to the core. Chasing back through time to find clues had me sitting on the edge of my seat. Caravaggio came jumping out of the pages, as colourful as any character in time. This book is every bit as good as a Dan Brown novel. A Must Read. A sure fire hit. Well done Stedman!
Great read, gets you from the first page. An interesting mix of fact and fiction together with a light-hearted often comical present day storyline. I now intend to purchase Helen Langdon's "Caravaggio a life" to see which is which.
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