Caravaggio in Ascendance: An Italian Antihero’s Time to Shine

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Caravaggiomania, as he calls it, implies not just that art history doctoral students may finally be struggling to think up anything fresh to say about Michelangelo. It suggests that the whole classical tradition in which Michelangelo was steeped is becoming ever more foreign and therefore seemingly less germane, even to many educated people.

To change languages:

Here we see delta blues. We can expect rockabilly at any moment.

Art has been unfashionable in the larger culture for as long as I can think.

LIFE and Norman Rockwell are the last instances that occur to me.

The schools draw on the gay and other desperate people who then make art that speaks to the creators.

Caravagio speaks to our time.