Vassaf’s inspiration came from Caravaggio paintings.
Gündüz Vassaf describes his first novel, Ressamın İsyanı (The Painter’s Rebellion, Everest Yayınları) as a picturesque journey: “It is a voyage of discovery through our ephemeral mindscape. Incorporating fiction, biography, poetry and song, the novel questions what it means to be human, examining the role of art, literature, history, religion, and gender in dialogue with eminent figures across history. We are on a road trip of emotions, humorous incidents and vignettes from different countries and cultures that in turn lead to the character discovering himself, his own sexuality and mortality.”
Vassaf’s inspiration for the book came from the Caravaggio paintings themselves: “Caravaggio is to art what Dostoevsky was to literature. While in Sicily, I was mesmerized by the painting ‘The Burial of Santa Lucia’, thus embarking on a seven-year journey, where I found myself immersed in the artist’s life. Was he devout, as many would have us believe? Or are his beliefs shrouded in mystery, protecting him from the Vatican during the Inquisition at a time when Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake? The novel follows him through his century, while the narrator is also tracing his own life story. Old loves, dead friends and his experiences intertwine with events and people while on Caravaggio’s trail.”
Vassaf is currently working on “words… to slow us down-” his philosophy of everyday life in discussion with a much younger friend.
Published July 2023
