On the way over here (Columbia, SC) , I read The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece, lent to me by my dad as we passed through Knoxville this afternoon.

It’s an easy read, good for library rats like me who like to read about other library rats doing research of one type or another. Among the several "lost" Caravaggios – paintings which we know were executed, but, well…lost, was one called The Taking of the Christ. Various records of it existed, including its sale to a Scotsman in the early 19th century, but after that, it drops out of sight. Where was it?

What makes the book interesting is that it doesn’t begin with this question. It begins with research that eventually, inadvertently, helped confirm that this painting was, indeed, a Caravaggio – research done by two Italian students as they assisted in a project to ascertain which John the Baptist – the one in the Doria-Pamphili, or the one in the Capitolini – is actually a Caravaggio, and which a copy.

In the process they stumble upon notations on the Taking of the Christ in various ledgers and account books of a Roman family archive, and follow the trail. They are not the ones who actually discover the painting, but their work helps confirm its identity.

It’s a relatively quick read, a bit like a padded New York Times Magazine article (which is where the author first wrote about this, so ..yeah) , but with its fair share of tension, art-world rivalries and disagreements, and Italian eccentricity.

It’s astonishing to me, because I’m lame, to read about Caravaggio’s life and doings around Rome – his dwellings around San’Agostino, his fights at Piazza Navona – and to think…I’ve been there!…and to know that what’s there today maintains so much continuity with the scene four hundred years ago.