From the Director of Rome's Galleria Borghese comes the story of the life and genius of Caravaggio, told through ten of the artist's masterpieces.

　　Writing Caravaggio's life is an impossible undertaking. Too modern to truly belong to his own time, too elusive to be confined within dates and documents, the painter who forever changed the course of art moves between light and shadow, presence and absence. This biography follows the traces he left behind – the mysteries of his apprenticeship, his flights and crimes, his pictorial revolutions – to tell the story of a genius who continues to defy every definition. This is a rigorous and impassioned journey into the Caravaggio enigma, allowing his paintings to speak for him.

　　FRANCESCA CAPPELLETTI is Director of the Galleria Borghese in Rome. She has taught History of Early Modern Art and European History of Art at several Italian universities. The author of essays and articles on the history of collecting, her work contributed to the rediscovery of Caravaggio's The Taking of Christ, now held at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin. She has curated exhibitions and catalogues in Italy and abroad. With Mondadori, she has published Le Belle. Ritratti femminili nelle stanze del potere (2024).