HANOVER, N.H.- The Hood Museum of Art has invited bestselling author Jonathan Harr to speak on Wednesday, November 15, about his book The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece (Random House, 2005). This program coincides with the release of the book in paperback and will be followed by a reception and book signing in the museum’s Kim Gallery. Brian Kennedy, Director of the Hood Museum of Art, was Assistant Director at the National Gallery of Ireland at the time of the discovery in Dublin of Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ. “It was one of those remarkable times in life when the possibility of a major art discovery becomes a marvelous reality,” said Dr. Kennedy. Harr’s book takes readers on a journey to discover Caravaggio’s long-lost painting, whose mysterious fate has captivated devotees for years. Caravaggio scholars estimate that between sixty and eighty of his works are in existence today whereas many others remain lost to time.

In the course of his investigations into the disappearance and rediscovery of The Taking of Christ, Harr introduces us to the rich cast of characters who assembled the puzzle pieces to this fascinating story: Sir Denis Mahon, “The Englishman,” the world’s foremost authority on Caravaggio; Francesca Cappelletti, “The Roman Girl,” an art history student from the University of Rome who makes the discovery that inspires a search for a work of art of incalculable value, lost for two centuries; and Sergio Benedetti, “The Restorer,” who discovered the painting and found his way to it, with Brian Kennedy’s assistance, hanging unnoticed in a Jesuit home in Dublin. Throughout, Harr folds in fascinating details about Caravaggio himself, his strange, turbulent career, and the astonishing beauty of his work.

Michelangelo Caravaggio (1571–1610), a master of the Italian Baroque, was a genius, a revolutionary painter, and a man beset by personal demons. Four hundred years ago, Caravaggio drank and brawled in the taverns and streets of Rome, moving from one rooming house to another, constantly in and out of jail, all the while painting works of transcendent emotional and visual power. No artist captured the dark, violent spirit of the time better than Caravaggio. He rose from obscurity to fame and wealth, but success did not alter his violent temperament. His rage finally led him to commit murder, forcing him to flee Rome as a hunted man. He died young, and alone, and under strange circumstances.

Jonathan Harr is the author of the national bestseller A Civil Action, winner of the National Book Critics Award for Nonfiction. He is a former staff writer at the New England Monthly and has written for the New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. He lives and works in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he has taught nonfiction writing at Smith College.