Rating: 
Summary: Lack of Scholarly Presentation.
Review: Peter Robbs book was very well researched and brings Carravagio to light as never before. I like the bluntness of telling what is HOWEVER I think sometimes he is too offhand for instance links to the modern world via a comparison to Tina Turners hairstyle and describing a model in a painting as having a sexy soft bum........only the merits of very good research can have me overlooking such things that make the book maybe as crude as M was. M comes across as a boy that in the struggle never grew to manhood and so strove desperately with his Art.....it tells us finally that he never was a master though he was master of his work. I must Thank Peter Robb for his book as I am glad for the knowledge.
Rating: 
Summary: A Feast of a Book
Review: Reading Robb's story of Caravaggio's life is like dining at the greatest buffet in the world, an extraordinary feast of words from which to extract the fascinating story of the man who invented the use of light we associate with Rubens and Rembrandt. I loved it!
Rating:
Summary: Penetrating insight obscured by odd verbal tics
Review: Reviewer Frank Martini beat me to the punch, but it's worth repeating -- this is a fine biography undermined by a writing style that becomes progressively harder to ignore as one reads along. Peter Robb has been badly served by his editors in this regard. He never misses an opportunity to use a contraction or to even glue two or more contractions together into a noisome verbal confection that trips the reader up. His preferences for non-standard punctuation, probably most charitably described as "odd," also stand out like loud, sour, distracting notes in an otherwise masterful composition.Robb's lack of decent editing is especially unfortunate because he has produced a fine biography from a very meager historical record. Michelangelo Merisi left little in the way of documentary evidence to mark his brief four decades of life. Until very recently, Merisi's biography was his work, the canvases he churned out with amazing proliferation, often according to his needs for money and political patronage. Robb does an outstanding job of placing Merisi within the context of the Italy of his era and invoking the various religious and political tensions which roiled the peninsula's art world throughout Merisi's life. Robb is also outstanding at dissecting Merisi's work, telling us how canvases were done, the techniques Merisi used to achieve his goals and the emotional connection his work made with his audiences. I was particularly impressed with Robb's conceit pairing Merisi with 1940s photographer WeeGee, whose gritty real-life, black and white compositions rose or fell on the contradictions between the two opposed qualities of light. In this sense, Merisi followed in God's footsteps by demanding, first of all, that there be light. The book is dogged by a dearth of color plates of Merisi's surviving work. It can be frustrating to read Robb's often eloquent descriptions of a Merisi canvas only to find that one has to put the book down and look for a reproduction of it on the Internet. And, while I applaud Robb's detective work in piecing together the few remaining scraps of contemporary documentation of Merisi's adult life, I can't help but wonder what might remain to be found in the Vatican's archives or in those of the Spanish monarchy. Robb is such a good researcher that one longs to see him slip the leash and come up with more documentation, particularly concerning Merisi's final days. This book is a splendid introduction to Merisi's work even despite the caveats I have mentioned. Be prepared to spend some time and mental energy in reading it, but it will be worth your effort. Michelangelo Merisi was instantly recognized during his own lifetime as one of those rare geniuses who completely transform art, which is never the same afterwards. His recent rediscovery is long overdue and Peter Robb's empathetic reading of the life and work of the man who became Caravaggio should further that rediscovery.
Rating:
Summary: A Chiaroscuro Portrait
Review: Robb's "M" is a fascinating romp through scenes of Renaissance Italy and the life of Caravaggio, known as "M" throught the book. The book in extremely readable and in many places very hard to put down. I would recommend as others have done so, to keep a book of M's works at your side for reference when Robb discusses his paintings. I bought the DK Art Book and found it to be only somwhat helpful. I would recommend Alfred Moir's "Caravaggio" as it has much better prints of the works and also includes some paintings that the DK book fails to include.
Rating:
Summary: A new way of writing
Review: Robb's 'M' is sheer brilliance. It is controversial and path break not simply as research but as writing. Robb brings Caravaggio alive and he does so by analysing what type of character the painter must have been and then writing in that style. In this way, Robb's writing is itself art. It is new, clever and fresh. The book is worth reading not simply from its historical content but from the artistry of what Robb himself has achieved. And so the book works at two levels: Robb's and Caravaggio's.
Rating: 
Summary: a fascinating read about the bad boy of Italian painting
Review: Robb's attempt to give insight in the life and times of the painter now known as Caravaggio yields a remarkable book. The author is the first to concede that hard data about the painter's life are flimsy at best, so a lot of research went into digging up information about contemporaries of M (patrons, powerbrokers, friends, other painters, ...). This led to a book that paints a very lively picture of late 16th and early 17th century Italy, but somehow fails to bring the central character really to life. Robb tries to correct Caravaggio's image of an unbalanced hothead - focusing on his trailblazer role in the search of a new pictural language that continuously clashed with the stifling dogmas of the Catholic Church - but is certainly not fully succesful in this respect : after reading this book one remains with the feeling that Caravaggio was a man hellbent on self-destruction. His violent temper, arrogance, pedophile inclinations and seemingly total lack of social graces made sure that - although at some point he was recognized as the most talented painter of his time - he could never secure the mecenate of the pope and that his careerpath had all the characteristics of a wild rollercoaster ride. At the end of his life, Robb shows his central character as a hunted man who has used up all favors and who has become a liability even to the powerful families that had frequently managed to get him out of trouble. His end remains clouded in mystery : no dead body, doubtful descriptions of the cause of death and even uncertainty about the whereabouts of his death. All this leaves much room for speculation and Robb does a good job in exploring the different possibilities. Caravaggio was a taciturn man when it came to his art. He did not leave any written material and the reports made of the court cases he was involved in, give us a few terse statements that are hardly elucidating - whatever Robb tries to make of it, seems like grasping at straws. So Caravaggio's art should speak for itself and it must be said that Robb's analyses of Caravaggio's paintings are very insightful - although some interpretations seem a little forced in order to gell with the author's view on the life of the painter. The reader should however be warned that the b/w and colour plates in the book represent only a fraction of the paintings put on review by the author. This is in my opinion the major shortcoming of this edition : a next editon should contain plates not only of the works of Caravaggio, but also of his contemporaries the author abundantly refers to. Now, you really need to have a separate art book at hand containing colour plates of all the works described by the author, or you will feel like the proverbial blind man listening to another man's description of an elephant... I used Roberto Longhi's "Caravaggio" (Editori Riuniti). Do not expect "an easy read" : Robb is determined to show his readers he has made his homework and this led to a book packed with historical detail, names and complex family ties. Personally, I was facinated by Robb's digging.
Rating:
Summary: For the Information of other readers
Review: Sydney authors Peter Robb and Mandy Sayer are joint winners of the $12,500 National Biography Award for 2000. Robb won for 'M', his historical biography of the European painter Caravaggio. The National Biography Award is given biennially and is administered and presented by the State Library of NSW on behalf of its benefactor, Geoffrey Cains.
Rating:
Summary: Favorite read this year. Use in combo w/Moir's art book
Review: The hardcover along with Moir's picture book was the most enjoyable read for me this year. The comparisons made btw both authors were enlightening. I recommend having both open as reference to each other. What a life!
Rating:
Summary: This Biography Reads Like a Good Mystery
Review: There are plenty of first-rate reviews of this fine biography, so this one is really unnecessary. But I loved this unusual book so much I just wanted to put my two-cents in. Peter Robb has done a masterful job of researching the life and work of this mysterious artist and through deep digging and logical speculation has achieved a wonderful result. Whether he has hit on the truth, I'm not sure, but he convinced this reader. The book often reads like a mystery novel, tightly plotted and swiftly paced. Caravaggio (a name given the artist later because that was the town he came from) used so many names during his lifetime that the author here just refers to him as M, one of the many he used. A gifted artist whose work is so photo-realistic and beautiful it's astonishing, Caravaggio also was a nearly nightly street thug given to carousing and brawling on the streets of seventeenth-century Rome. He may, and probably was, involved in a few murders along the way. He probably would have spent his life in prison had it not been for his incredible talent and the protection of a few highly placed Church officials. Peter Robb's book has two themes intertwined here: first, the biographical details of Caravaggio's life and second, a detailed examination of most of Caravaggio's paintings. Either strand, separated from the other, would make a successful and interesting book on its own. The descriptions of the paintings often covered three or four pages each. As I read these I was simply amazed at the details. I'd look at the painting being discussed and say to myself in surprise, "Yes! Why didn't I notice that?" These descriptions are really small stories told by the paintings and imparted to the reader through Robb's words. I often wished I had an audio recording of the descriptions so that I could just listen as my eyes concentrated on the story in the paintings. Even when the described picture was not reproduced in the book, it made interesting reading and I could almost see the painting in my mind. My only wish is that the book had more reproductions of the paintings. Therefore my recommendation is that a new reader get a book of reproductions of Caravaggio's paintings and have it alongside this one for reference while reading.
Rating: 
Summary: CONFUSING AND HARD TO READ
Review: THERE ARE SOME VALUABLE INSIGHTS AND INTRIGUING NUGGETS OF INFORMATION BUT THIS INFORMATION WAS VERY DIFFICULT TO EXTRACT FROM SUCH AN INCOHERENT BOOK....IT WAS POORLY ORGANIZED AND GAVE ME A HEADACHE AS I TRIED TO FOLLOW THE AUTHOR'S LINE OF REASONING. WHY DID NONE OF THE PROFESSIONAL BOOK REVIEWS WARN READERS OF THE CONFUSING NATURE OF THE WRITING. THE AUTHOR APPEARS KNOWLEDGEABLE RE: HIS SUBJECT BUT HE NEEDS A GOOD EDITOR TO CLEAR UP HIS MESSY PRESENTATION. I TEACH COLLEGE LEVEL ART HISTORY AND WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO MY STUDENTS.
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