Editing Caravaggio (section)

== Biography ==

=== Early life (1571–1592) ===

[[File:Canestra di frutta (Caravaggio).jpg|thumb|''[[Basket of Fruit (Caravaggio)|Basket of Fruit]]'', {{circa|1595–1596}}, oil on canvas, [[Pinacoteca Ambrosiana]], Milan]]

Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi or Amerighi) was born in [[Milan]], where his father, Fermo (Fermo Merixio), was a household administrator and architect-decorator to the marquess of [[Caravaggio, Lombardy|Caravaggio]], a town {{Convert|35|km|abbr=on}} to the east of Milan and south of [[Bergamo]].<ref>Confirmed by the finding in February 2007 of his baptism certificate from the Milanese parish of Santo Stefano in Brolo. {{cite web |title=Biografía de Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) (1571–1610) |url=http://www.italica.rai.it/index.php?categoria=bio&scheda=caravaggio_prima_parte |publisher=Italica.rai.it |access-date=18 November 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090416123558/http://www.italica.rai.it/index.php?categoria=bio&scheda=caravaggio_prima_parte |archive-date=16 April 2009 }}</ref> In 1576 the family moved to Caravaggio to escape a plague that ravaged Milan, and Caravaggio's father and grandfather both died there on the same day in 1577.<ref name="ParisArtStudies">{{cite web | url =http://www.parisartstudies.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=129 | title =Paris Art Studies Caravaggio | publisher =parisartstudies.com | year =2009 | access-date =21 May 2013 | archive-date =6 November 2020 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20201106195537/http://www.parisartstudies.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=129 | url-status =dead }}</ref><ref>[http://www.maltacultureguide.com/index.php?page=article&article_id=38 Malta Culture Guide] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160829173655/http://www.maltacultureguide.com/index.php?page=article&article_id=38 |date=29 August 2016 }}. Retrieved 21 February 2017</ref> It is assumed that the artist grew up in Caravaggio, but his family kept up connections with the [[Sforzas]] and the powerful [[Colonna family]], who were allied by marriage with the Sforzas and destined to play a major role later in Caravaggio's life.

Caravaggio's mother had to raise all of her five children in poverty.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lambert |first=Gilles |title=Caravaggio |publisher=Taschen |year=2000 |isbn=9783822863053 |page=19 |language=en}}</ref> She died in 1584, the same year he began his four-year apprenticeship to the Milanese painter [[Simone Peterzano]], described in the contract of apprenticeship as a pupil of [[Titian]]. Caravaggio appears to have stayed in the Milan-Caravaggio area after his apprenticeship ended, but it is possible that he visited [[Venice]] and saw the works of [[Giorgione]], whom [[Federico Zuccari]] later accused him of imitating, and Titian.<ref>Harris, p. 21.</ref> He would also have become familiar with the art treasures of Milan, including [[Leonardo da Vinci]]'s ''[[The Last Supper (Leonardo)|Last Supper]]'', and with the regional Lombard art, a style that valued simplicity and attention to [[Realism (arts)|naturalistic]] detail and was closer to the naturalism of Germany than to the stylised formality and grandeur of Roman [[Mannerism]].<ref>Rosa Giorgi, ": Master of light and dark – his life in paintings", p.12.</ref>

=== Beginnings in Rome (1592/95–1600) ===

Following his initial training under [[Simone Peterzano]], in 1592, Caravaggio left Milan for Rome in flight after "certain quarrels" and the wounding of a police officer. The young artist arrived in Rome "naked and extremely needy... without fixed address and without provision... short of money."<ref>Quoted without attribution in Robb, p.35, apparently based on the three primary sources, Mancini, Baglione and Bellori, all of whom depict Caravaggio's early Roman years as a period of extreme poverty (see references below).</ref> During this period, he stayed with the miserly Pandolfo Pucci, known as "monsignor Insalata".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Louise Brown |first1=Beverly |title=The Genius of Rome, 1592–1623 |date=2001 |publisher=Royal Academy of Arts |isbn=9780900946882 |page=21}}</ref> A few months later he was performing hack-work for the highly successful [[Giuseppe Cesari]], [[Pope Clement VIII]]'s favourite artist, "painting flowers and fruit"<ref>Giovanni Pietro Bellori, ''Le Vite de' pittori, scultori, et architetti moderni'', 1672: "Michele was forced by necessity to enter the services of Cavalier Giuseppe d'Arpino, by whom he was employed to paint flowers and fruits so realistically that they began to attain the higher beauty that we love so much today."</ref> in his factory-like workshop.

In Rome, there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palaces being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for a stylistic alternative to [[Mannerism]] in religious art that was tasked to [[Counter-Reformation|counter the threat of Protestantism]].<ref>Harris, Ann Sutherland, Seventeenth-century Art & Architecture (Upper Saddle River: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008).</ref> Caravaggio's innovation was a radical [[Realism (arts)|naturalism]] that combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, use of [[chiaroscuro]] that came to be known as [[tenebrism]] (the shift from light to dark with little intermediate value).

[[File:Caravaggio - I Musici.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|''[[The Musicians (Caravaggio)|The Musicians]]'', 1595–1596, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York]]

Known works from this period include the small ''[[Boy Peeling a Fruit]]'' (his earliest known painting), ''[[Boy with a Basket of Fruit]]'', and ''[[Young Sick Bacchus]]'', supposedly a self-portrait done during convalescence from a serious illness that ended his employment with Cesari. All three demonstrate the physical particularity for which Caravaggio was to become renowned: the fruit-basket-boy's produce has been analyzed by a professor of horticulture, who was able to identify individual cultivars right down to "...a large fig leaf with a prominent fungal scorch lesion resembling [[anthracnose]] (''Glomerella cingulata'')."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/caravaggio/caravaggio_l.html |title=Caravaggio |publisher=Hort.purdue.edu |access-date=18 November 2012}}</ref>

Caravaggio left Cesari, determined to make his own way after a heated argument.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Caravaggio|last=Hibbard|first=Howard|publisher=Thames and Hudson|year=1983|isbn=978-0500274910|location=London|pages=85–86}}</ref> At this point he forged some extremely important friendships, with the painter [[Prospero Orsi]], the architect [[Onorio Longhi]], and the sixteen-year-old [[Sicily|Sicilian]] artist [[Mario Minniti]]. Orsi, established in the profession, introduced him to influential collectors; Longhi, more balefully, introduced him to the world of Roman street brawls.<ref>Catherine Puglisi, "Caravaggio", p. 79. Longhi was with Caravaggio on the night of the fatal brawl with Tomassoni; Robb, "M", p.341, believes that Minniti was as well.</ref> Minniti served Caravaggio as a model and, years later, would be instrumental in helping him to obtain important commissions in Sicily. Ostensibly, the first archival reference to Caravaggio in a contemporary document from Rome is the listing of his name, with that of Prospero Orsi as his partner, as an 'assistant' in a procession in October 1594 in honour of St. Luke.<ref>H. Waga "Vita nota e ignota dei virtuosi al Pantheon" Rome 1992, Appendix I, pp. 219 and 220ff</ref> The earliest informative account of his life in the city is a court transcript dated 11 July 1597, when Caravaggio and Prospero Orsi were witnesses to a crime near [[San Luigi dei Francesi|San Luigi de' Francesi]].<ref>"The earliest account of Caravaggio in Rome" Sandro Corradini and Maurizio Marini, [[The Burlington Magazine]], pp. 25–28</ref>

[[File:Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy-Caravaggio (c.1595).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''[[Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy (Caravaggio)|Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy]]'' (c. 1595), [[Wadsworth Atheneum]], Hartford]]

''[[The Fortune Teller (Caravaggio)|The Fortune Teller]]'', his first composition with more than one figure, shows a boy, likely Minniti, having his palm read by a Romani girl, who is stealthily removing his ring as she strokes his hand. The theme was quite new for Rome and proved immensely influential over the next century and beyond. However, at the time, Caravaggio sold it for practically nothing. ''[[The Cardsharps]]''—showing another naïve youth of privilege falling victim to card cheats—is even more psychologically complex and perhaps Caravaggio's first true masterpiece. Like ''The Fortune Teller'', it was immensely popular, and over 50 copies survived. More importantly, it attracted the patronage of [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|Cardinal]] [[Francesco Maria del Monte]], one of the leading connoisseurs in Rome. For del Monte and his wealthy art-loving circle, Caravaggio executed a number of intimate chamber-pieces—''[[The Musicians (Caravaggio)|The Musicians]]'', ''[[The Lute Player (Caravaggio)|The Lute Player]]'', a tipsy ''[[Bacchus (Caravaggio)|Bacchus]]'', and an allegorical but realistic ''[[Boy Bitten by a Lizard]]''—featuring Minniti and other adolescent models.
[[File:Michelangelo Caravaggio 020.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|[[The Lute Player (Caravaggio)|''The Lute Player'']] (Hermitage version), {{Circa|1600}}, [[Hermitage Museum]], Saint Petersburg (commissioned by [[Francesco Maria del Monte]])]]

Caravaggio's first paintings on religious themes returned to realism and the emergence of remarkable spirituality. The first of these was the ''[[Penitent Magdalene (Caravaggio)|Penitent Magdalene]]'', showing [[Mary Magdalene]] at the moment when she has turned from her life as a courtesan and sits weeping on the floor, her jewels scattered around her. "It seemed not a religious painting at all ... a girl sitting on a low wooden stool drying her hair ... Where was the repentance ... suffering ... promise of salvation?"<ref>Robb, p. 79. Robb is drawing on Bellori, who praises Caravaggio's "true" colours but finds the naturalism offensive: "He (Caravaggio) was satisfied with [the] invention of nature without further exercising his brain."</ref> It was understated, in the Lombard manner, not histrionic in the Roman manner of the time. It was followed by others in the same style: ''[[Saint Catherine (Caravaggio)|Saint Catherine]]''; ''[[Martha and Mary Magdalene (Caravaggio)|Martha and Mary Magdalene]]''; ''[[Judith Beheading Holofernes (Caravaggio)|Judith Beheading Holofernes]]''; ''[[Sacrifice of Isaac (Caravaggio)|Sacrifice of Isaac]]''; ''[[Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy (Caravaggio)|Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy]]''; and ''[[Rest on the Flight into Egypt (Caravaggio)|Rest on the Flight into Egypt]]''. These works, while viewed by a comparatively limited circle, increased Caravaggio's fame with both connoisseurs and his fellow artists. But a true reputation would depend on public commissions, for which it was necessary to look to the Church.

[[File:Caravaggio - Medusa - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|''[[Medusa (Caravaggio)|Medusa]]'', {{circa|1597}}, [[Uffizi]], Florence]]
[[File:Narcissus-Caravaggio (1594-96) edited.jpg|thumb|[[Narcissus (Caravaggio)|''Narcissus at the Source'']], 1597–1599, [[Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica]], Rome]]
Already evident was the intense realism or naturalism for which Caravaggio is now famous. He preferred to paint his subjects as the eye sees them, with all their natural flaws and defects, instead of as idealised creations. This allowed a full display of his virtuosic talents. This shift from accepted standard practice and the classical idealism of [[Michelangelo]] was very controversial at the time. Caravaggio also dispensed with the lengthy preparations for a painting that were traditional in central Italy at the time. Instead, he preferred the Venetian practice of working in oils directly from the subject—half-length figures and still life. ''[[Supper at Emmaus (Caravaggio, London)|Supper at Emmaus]]'', from {{Circa|1600–1601}}, is a characteristic work of this period demonstrating his virtuoso talent.

=== "Most famous painter in Rome" (1600–1606) ===

In 1599, presumably through the influence of del Monte, Caravaggio was contracted to decorate the [[Contarelli Chapel]] in the church of [[San Luigi dei Francesi]]. The two works making up the commission, ''[[The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (Caravaggio)|The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew]]'' and ''[[The Calling of Saint Matthew]]'', delivered in 1600, were an immediate sensation. Thereafter he never lacked commissions or patrons.

[[File:The Calling of Saint Matthew-Caravaggo (1599-1600).jpg|thumb|left|''[[The Calling of Saint Matthew]]'' (1599–1600), [[Contarelli Chapel]], [[San Luigi dei Francesi]], Rome. Without recourse to flying angels, parting clouds or other artifice, Caravaggio portrays the instant conversion of St. Matthew, the moment on which his destiny will turn, by means of a beam of light and the pointing finger of Jesus.]]

Caravaggio's [[tenebrism]] (a heightened [[chiaroscuro]]) brought high drama to his subjects, while his acutely observed realism brought a new level of emotional intensity. Opinion among his artist peers was polarized. Some denounced him for various perceived failings, notably his insistence on painting from life, without drawings, but for the most part he was hailed as a great artistic visionary: "The painters then in Rome were greatly taken by this novelty, and the young ones particularly gathered around him, praised him as the unique imitator of nature, and looked on his work as miracles."<ref>Bellori. The passage continues: "[The younger painters] outdid each other in copying him, undressing their models and raising their lights; and rather than setting out to learn from study and instruction, each readily found in the streets or squares of Rome both masters and models for copying nature."</ref>

Caravaggio went on to secure a string of prestigious commissions for religious works featuring violent struggles, grotesque decapitations, torture, and death. Most notable and technically masterful among them were ''[[The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (Caravaggio)|The Incredulity of Saint Thomas]]'' (circa 1601) and ''[[The Taking of Christ]]'' (circa 1602) the latter only rediscovered in the 1990s in [[Dublin]] after remaining unrecognized for two centuries.<ref name="Barber 1999">{{cite book |last1=Barber |first1=Noel |editor1-last=Mormando |editor1-first=Franco |editor1-link=Franco Mormando |title=Saints & sinners: Caravaggio & the Baroque image |date=1999 |publisher=McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College; Distributed by the University of Chicago Press |location=Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts |isbn=978-1-892850-00-3 |pages=11–13 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/saintssinnerscar00morm/page/n5/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater |access-date=5 March 2021 |chapter=Preface: The Murder Behind the Discovery}} For the details of the discovery, see this essay by eye-witness Noel Barber (superior of the Jesuit community in Dublin in which the painting was rediscovered.)</ref> For the most part, each new painting increased his fame, but a few were rejected by the various bodies for whom they were intended, at least in their original forms, and had to be re-painted or find new buyers. The essence of the problem was that while Caravaggio's dramatic intensity was appreciated, his realism was seen by some as unacceptably vulgar.<ref>For an outline of the Counter-Reformation Church's policy on decorum in art, see Giorgi, p.80. For a more detailed discussion, see Gash, p.8ff; and for a discussion of the part played by notions of decorum in the rejection of "St Matthew and the Angel" and "Death of the Virgin", see Puglisi, pp.179–188.</ref>

[[File:Caravaggio Judith Beheading Holofernes.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''[[Judith Beheading Holofernes (Caravaggio)|Judith Beheading Holofernes]]'', 1599–1602, [[Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica]], Rome]]His first version of ''[[Saint Matthew and the Angel]]'', featuring the saint as a bald peasant with dirty legs attended by a lightly clad over-familiar boy-angel, was rejected and a second version had to be painted as ''[[The Inspiration of Saint Matthew]]''. Similarly, ''[[The Conversion of Saint Paul (Caravaggio)|The Conversion of Saint Paul]]'' was rejected, and while another version of the same subject, the ''[[Conversion on the Way to Damascus]]'', was accepted, it featured the saint's horse's haunches far more prominently than the saint himself, prompting this exchange between the artist and an exasperated official of [[Santa Maria del Popolo]]: "Why have you put a horse in the middle, and [[Saint Paul]] on the ground?" "Because!" "Is the horse God?" "No, but he stands in God's light!"<ref>Quoted without attribution in Lambert, p.66.</ref>

The aristocratic collector [[Ciriaco Mattei]], brother of Cardinal [[Girolamo Mattei]], who was friends with Cardinal [[Francesco Maria del Monte|Francesco Maria Bourbon Del Monte]], gave ''The Supper at Emmaus'' to the city palace he shared with his brother, 1601 ([[National Gallery, London]]), The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, {{Circa|1601}}, "Ecclesiastical Version" (Private Collection, Florence), The Incredulity of Saint Thomas {{Circa|1601}}, 1601 "Secular Version" (Sanssouci Palace, Potsdam), John the Baptist with the Ram, 1602 ([[Capitoline Museums|Capitoline Museums, Rome]]) and ''[[The Taking of Christ]]'', 1602 ([[National Gallery of Ireland]], Dublin) Caravaggio commissioned.<ref name="sammut" />

The second version of ''The Taking of Christ'', which was looted from the [[Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art|Odessa Museum]] in 2008 and recovered in 2010, is believed by some experts to be a contemporary copy.<ref name="CaravaggioPomella2005" />
[[File:The Incredulity of Saint Thomas.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.3|The Incredulity of Saint Thomas]]
''[[The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (Caravaggio)|The Incredulity of Saint Thomas]]'' is one of the most famous paintings by Caravaggio, circa 1601–1602. It entered the Prussian Royal Collection, survived the [[Second World War]] unscathed, and can be viewed in the [[Sanssouci|Palais in Sanssouci]], Potsdam. 

The painting depicts the episode that led to the term "[[Doubting Thomas]]"—in art history formally known as "The Incredulity of Saint Thomas"—which has been frequently depicted and used to make various theological statements in Christian art since at least the 5th century. According to the [[Gospel of John]], [[Thomas the Apostle]] missed one of Jesus' appearances to the apostles after his resurrection and said, "Unless I see the marks of the nails in his hands, and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." A week later, Jesus appeared and told Thomas to touch him and stop doubting. Then Jesus said, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

The painting shows in a demonstrative gesture how the doubting apostle puts his finger into Christ's side wound, the latter guiding his hand. The unbeliever is depicted like a peasant, dressed in a robe torn at the shoulder and with dirt under his fingernails. The composition of the picture is designed in such a way that the viewer is directly involved in the event and also feels its intensity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marini |first=Maurizio |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/915922456 |title=Caravaggio "pictor praestantissimus" : l'iter artistico di uno dei massimi rivoluzionari dell'arte di tutti i tempi |date=2014 |publisher=Newton Compton |others=Caravaggio,?-1610 |isbn=978-88-541-6939-5 |edition=4ª |location=Roma |oclc=915922456}}</ref>

[[File:Death of the Virgin-Caravaggio (1606).jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|''[[Death of the Virgin (Caravaggio)|Death of the Virgin]]'', 1601–1606, [[Louvre]], Paris]]

Other works included ''[[The Entombment of Christ (Caravaggio)|Entombment]]'', the ''[[Madonna di Loreto (Caravaggio)|Madonna di Loreto]]'' ("Madonna of the Pilgrims"), the ''[[Madonna and Child with St. Anne (Dei Palafrenieri)|Grooms' Madonna]]'', and ''[[Death of the Virgin (Caravaggio)|Death of the Virgin]]''. The history of these last two paintings illustrates the reception given to some of Caravaggio's art and the times in which he lived. The ''Grooms' Madonna'', also known as ''Madonna dei palafrenieri'', painted for a small altar in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, remained there for just two days and was then removed. A cardinal's secretary wrote: "In this painting, there are but vulgarity, sacrilege, impiousness and disgust...One would say it is a work made by a painter that can paint well, but of a dark spirit, and who has been for a lot of time far from God, from His adoration, and from any good thought..."

[[File:Amor Vincet Omnia.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Amor Vincit Omnia (Caravaggio)|Amor Vincit Omnia]]'', 1601–1602, [[Gemäldegalerie]], Berlin. Caravaggio shows [[Cupid]] prevailing over all human endeavors: war, music, science, government.]]

''[[Death of the Virgin (Caravaggio)|Death of the Virgin]]'', commissioned in 1601 by a wealthy jurist for his private chapel in the new Carmelite church of Santa Maria della Scala, was rejected by the Carmelites in 1606. Caravaggio's contemporary [[Giulio Mancini]] records that it was rejected because Caravaggio had used a well-known prostitute as his model for the Virgin.<ref>Mancini: "Thus one can understand how badly some modern artists paint, such as those who, wishing to portray the Virgin Our Lady, depict some dirty prostitute from the Ortaccio, as Michelangelo da Caravaggio did in the Death of the Virgin in that painting for the Madonna della Scala, which for that very reason those good fathers rejected it, and perhaps that poor man suffered so much trouble in his lifetime."</ref> [[Giovanni Baglione]], another contemporary, tells that it was due to Mary's bare legs<ref>Baglione: "For the [church of] Madonna della Scala in Trastevere he painted the death of the Madonna, but because he had portrayed the Madonna with little decorum, swollen and with bare legs, it was taken away, and the Duke of Mantua bought it and placed it in his most noble gallery."</ref>—a matter of decorum in either case. Caravaggio scholar John Gash suggests that the problem for the Carmelites may have been theological rather than aesthetic, in that Caravaggio's version fails to assert the doctrine of the [[Assumption of Mary]], the idea that the Mother of God did not die in any ordinary sense but was assumed into Heaven.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kUE3AQAAIAAJ&q=Carmelites|first=John|last=Gash|title=Caravaggio|publisher=Chaucer Press|date=2004|isbn=1904449220|pages=17–18|access-date=11 July 2019}}</ref> The replacement altarpiece commissioned (from one of Caravaggio's most able followers, [[Carlo Saraceni]]), showed the Virgin not dead, as Caravaggio had painted her, but seated and dying; and even this was rejected, and replaced with a work showing the Virgin not dying, but ascending into Heaven with choirs of angels. In any case, the rejection did not mean that Caravaggio or his paintings were out of favour. ''Death of the Virgin'' was no sooner taken out of the church than it was purchased by the Duke of Mantua, on the advice of [[Rubens]], and later acquired by [[Charles I of England]] before entering the French royal collection in 1671.

One secular piece from these years is ''[[Amor Vincit Omnia (Caravaggio)|Amor Vincit Omnia]]'', in English also called ''Amor Victorious'', painted in 1602 for [[Vincenzo Giustiniani]], a member of del Monte's circle. The model was named in a memoir of the early 17th century as "Cecco", the diminutive for Francesco. He is possibly Francesco Boneri, identified with an artist active in the period 1610–1625 and known as [[Cecco del Caravaggio]] ('Caravaggio's Cecco'),<ref>While Gianni Papi's identification of Cecco del Caravaggio as Francesco Boneri is widely accepted, the evidence connecting Boneri to Caravaggio's servant and model in the early 17th century is circumstantial. See Robb, pp193–196.</ref> carrying a bow and arrows and trampling symbols of the warlike and peaceful arts and sciences underfoot. He is unclothed, and it is difficult to accept this grinning urchin as the Roman god [[Cupid]]—as difficult as it was to accept Caravaggio's other semi-clad adolescents as the various angels he painted in his canvases, wearing much the same stage-prop wings. The point, however, is the intense yet ambiguous reality of the work: it is simultaneously Cupid and Cecco, as Caravaggio's Virgins were simultaneously the Mother of Christ and the Roman courtesans who modeled for them.

=== Legal problems and flight from Rome (1606) ===

[[File:Saint Jerome Writing-Caravaggio (1605-6).jpg|thumb|''[[Saint Jerome Writing]]'', {{Circa|1605–1606}}, [[Galleria Borghese]], Rome]]

Caravaggio led a tumultuous life. He was notorious for brawling, even in a time and place when such behavior was commonplace, and the transcripts of his police records and trial proceedings fill many pages.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://perfectpicturelights.com/blog/untold-secrets-of-caravaggio-a-master-of-light| title = Caravaggio's Untold Secrets}}</ref>

Bellori claims that around 1590–1592, Caravaggio, already well known for brawling with gangs of young men, committed a murder which forced him to flee from Milan, first to Venice and then to Rome.<ref>Bellori, p. 215.</ref>

On 28 November 1600, while living at the [[Palazzo Madama, Rome|Palazzo Madama]] with his patron Cardinal Del Monte, Caravaggio beat nobleman Girolamo Stampa da Montepulciano, a guest of the cardinal, with a club, resulting in an official complaint to the police. Episodes of brawling, violence, and tumult grew more and more frequent.<ref>Mariano Luigi Patrizi, ''Il Caravaggio e la nova critica d'arte: un pittore criminale. Ricostruzione psicologica'', R. Simboli, 1921, p. 158.</ref> Caravaggio was often arrested and jailed at [[Tor di Nona]].<ref>Calvesi 1986, pp. 8–9.</ref>

After his release from jail in 1601, Caravaggio returned to paint first ''[[The Taking of Christ]]'' and then ''[[Amor Vincit Omnia (Caravaggio)|Amor Vincit Omnia]]''. In 1603, he was arrested again, this time for the [[defamation]] of another painter, [[Giovanni Baglione]], who sued Caravaggio and his followers [[Orazio Gentileschi]] and [[Onorio Longhi]] for writing offensive poems about him. The French ambassador intervened, and Caravaggio was transferred to house arrest after a month in jail in Tor di Nona.

Between May and October 1604, Caravaggio was arrested several times for possession of illegal weapons and for insulting the city guards. He was also sued by a tavern waiter for having thrown a plate of [[artichoke]]s in his face.<ref>Calvesi 1986, p. 8.</ref>

An early published notice on Caravaggio, dating from 1604 and describing his lifestyle three years previously, recounts that "after a fortnight's work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him."<ref>Floris Claes van Dijk, a contemporary of Caravaggio in Rome in 1601, quoted in John Gash, "Caravaggio", p.&nbsp;13. The quotation originates in [[Karel van Mander]]'s ''Het Schilder-Boek'' of 1604, translated in full in Howard Hibbard, "Caravaggio".</ref>

In 1605, Caravaggio was forced to flee to Genoa for three weeks after seriously injuring Mariano Pasqualone di Accumoli, a notary, in a dispute over Lena, Caravaggio's model and lover. The notary reported having been attacked on 29 July with a sword, causing a severe head injury.<ref>{{Cite web|date=22 September 2020|title=CARAVAGGIO IN GENOA. HYPOTHESIS FOR AN INSPIRATION|url=https://www.speculumartis.net/en/2020/09/22/caravaggio-in-genoa-hypothesis-for-an-inspiration/|access-date=23 April 2021|website=Speculum Artis|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Liberatori|first=Ernesto|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_QuBCgAAQBAJ&q=%22assassinato+da+Michelangelo+da+Caravaggio+pittore%22&pg=PA118|title=Luci e Ombre su Michelangelo Merisi|date=4 September 2015|publisher=Youcanprint|isbn=978-88-9306-413-2|language=it}}</ref> Caravaggio's patrons intervened and managed to cover up the incident.

Upon his return to Rome, Caravaggio was sued by his landlady Prudenzia Bruni for not having paid his rent. Out of spite, Caravaggio threw rocks through her window at night and was sued again.

In November, Caravaggio was hospitalized for an injury which he claimed he had caused himself by falling on his own sword.

On 29 May 1606, Caravaggio killed a young man, possibly unintentionally, resulting in his fleeing Rome with a death sentence hanging over him. Ranuccio Tomassoni was a gangster from a wealthy family. The two had argued many times, often ending in blows. The circumstances are unclear, whether a brawl or a [[duel]] with swords at [[Campo Marzio]], but the killing may have been unintentional.

Many rumours circulated at the time as to the cause of the fight. Several contemporary ''[[avvisi]]'' referred to a quarrel over a gambling debt and a [[Palla (game)|pallacorda]] game, a sort of tennis, and this explanation has become established in the popular imagination.<ref name="Life of Caravaggio">{{cite book|last=Baglione|first=Giovanni|url=http://caravaggio.com/preview/attach/data01/D000001.htm|title=Life of Caravaggio|year=1642|location=Italy|author-link=Giovanni Baglione|access-date=30 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101063913/http://caravaggio.com/preview/attach/data01/D000001.htm|archive-date=1 November 2013|url-status=dead}}

Because of the excessive ardour of his spirit Michelangelo was a little wild and he sometimes looked for the chance to break his neck or to risk the lives of others. People as quarrelsome as he were often to be found in his company: and having, in the end, confronted Ranuccio Tomassoni, a well-mannered young man, over some disagreement about a tennis match they challenged one another to a duel. After Ranuccio fell to the ground, Michelangelo struck him with the point of his sword and, having wounded him in the thigh, killed him.</ref> Other rumours, however, claimed that the duel stemmed from jealousy over [[Fillide Melandroni]], a well-known Roman prostitute who had modeled for him in several important paintings; Tomassoni was her pimp. According to such rumours, Caravaggio castrated Tomassoni with his sword before deliberately killing him, with other versions claiming that Tomassoni's death had been caused accidentally during the castration. The duel may have had a political dimension, as Tomassoni's family was notoriously pro-Spanish, whereas Caravaggio was a client of the French ambassador.

Caravaggio's patrons had hitherto been able to shield him from any serious consequences of his frequent duels and brawling, but Tomassoni's wealthy family was outraged by his death and demanded justice. Caravaggio's patrons were unable to protect him. Caravaggio was sentenced to [[beheading]] for murder, and an open bounty was decreed, enabling anyone who recognized him to carry out the sentence legally. Caravaggio's paintings began, obsessively, to depict severed heads, often his own, at this time.

Modern accounts are to be found in [[Peter Robb (author)|Peter Robb]]'s ''[[M (Peter Robb book)|M]]'' and Helen Langdon's ''Caravaggio: A Life''. A theory relating the death to Renaissance notions of honour and symbolic wounding has been advanced by art historian [[Andrew Graham-Dixon]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Milner |first=Catherine |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/1396127/Red-blooded-Caravaggio-killed-love-rival-in-bungled-castration-attempt.html |title=Red-blooded Caravaggio killed love rival in bungled castration attempt |publisher=Telegraph.co.uk |date=2 June 2002 |access-date=17 March 2014 |location=London}}</ref> Whatever the details, the matter was serious enough that Caravaggio was forced to flee Rome.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Willey|first1=David|title=Caravaggio's crimes exposed in Rome's police files|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-12497978|publisher=bbc|access-date=28 November 2015|date=18 February 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Watkins |first=Ally |url=http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/37059/caravaggios-rap-sheet-reveals-him-to-have-been-a-lawless-sword-obsessed-wildman-and-a-terrible-renter/ |title=Caravaggio's Rap Sheet Reveals Him to Have Been a Lawless Sword-Obsessed Wildman, and a Terrible Renter |publisher=Artinfo |date=24 February 2011 |access-date=18 November 2012}}</ref> He moved just south of the city, then to [[Naples]], [[Malta]], and [[Sicily]].
[[File:Mappa Caravaggio.JPG|thumb|Map of Caravaggio's travels]]

=== Exile and death (1606–1610) ===
{{main|Exile of Caravaggio}}
==== Naples ====
Following the death of Tomassoni, Caravaggio fled first to the estates of the [[Colonna family]] south of Rome and then on to Naples, where Costanza Colonna Sforza, widow of Francesco Sforza, in whose husband's household Caravaggio's father had held a position, maintained a palace. In Naples, outside the jurisdiction of the Roman authorities and protected by the Colonna family, the most famous painter in Rome became the most famous in Naples.
[[File:Caravaggio - Sette opere di Misericordia.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|''[[The Seven Works of Mercy]]'', 1606–1607, [[Pio Monte della Misericordia]], Naples]]

His connections with the Colonnas led to a stream of important church commissions, including the ''[[Madonna of the Rosary (Caravaggio)|Madonna of the Rosary]]'', and ''[[The Seven Works of Mercy]]''.<ref>Costanza's brother Ascanio was Cardinal-Protector of the Kingdom of Naples; another brother, Marzio, was an advisor to the Spanish Viceroy; and a sister was married into the important Neapolitan Carafa family. Caravaggio stayed in Costanza's palazzo on his return to Naples in 1609. These connections are treated in most biographies and studies—see, for example, Catherine Puglisi, "Caravaggio", p.258, for a brief outline. Helen Langdon, "Caravaggio: A Life", ch.12 and 15, and Peter Robb, "M", pp.398ff and 459ff, give a fuller account.</ref> ''The Seven Works of Mercy'' depicts the [[Works of Mercy#Corporal works of mercy|seven corporal works of mercy]] as a set of compassionate acts concerning the material needs of others. The painting was made for and is still housed in the church of [[Pio Monte della Misericordia]] in [[Naples]]. Caravaggio combined all seven works of mercy in one composition, which became the church's [[altarpiece]].<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1080/23753234.2017.1287283 | title=Caravaggio's 'Seven Works of Mercy' in Naples. The relevance of art history to cultural journalism | year=2017 | last1=Bühren | first1=Ralf van | journal=Church, Communication and Culture | volume=2 | pages=63–87 | s2cid=194755813 | doi-access=free }}</ref> Alessandro Giardino has also established the connection between the iconography of "The Seven Works of Mercy" and the cultural, scientific and philosophical circles of the painting's [[commissioners]].<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15700593-01600100 | doi=10.1163/15700593-01600100 | title=The Seven Works of Mercy | year=2017 | last1=Giardino | first1=Alessandro | journal=Aries | volume=17 | issue=2 | pages=149–170 }}</ref>

==== Malta ====
Despite his success in Naples, after only a few months in the city Caravaggio left for [[Hospitaller Malta]], the headquarters of the [[Knights Hospitaller|Knights of Malta]]. Fabrizio Sforza Colonna, Costanza's son, was a Knight of Malta and general of the Order's [[galley]]s. He appears to have facilitated Caravaggio's arrival on the island in 1607 (and his escape the next year). Caravaggio presumably hoped that the patronage of [[Alof de Wignacourt]], Grand Master of the [[Knights of Saint John]], could help him secure a [[pardon]] for Tomassoni's death.<ref name="sammut">{{cite journal|journal=Scientia|last=Sammut|first=E.|date=1949|title=Caravaggio in Malta|url=http://melitensiawth.com/incoming/Index/Scientia%20(Malta)/Scientia.%2015(1949)2(Apr.-Jun.)/03.pdf|volume=15|issue=2|pages=78–89|access-date=23 February 2017|archive-date=8 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008090746/http://melitensiawth.com/incoming/Index/Scientia%20(Malta)/Scientia.%2015(1949)2(Apr.-Jun.)/03.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Wignacourt was so impressed at having the artist as official painter to the Order that he inducted him as a Knight, and the early biographer Bellori records that the artist was well pleased with his success.<ref name="sammut"/> Wignacourt reportedly gifted some slaves to Caravaggio in recognition for his services.<ref name="lanfranco2007">{{cite journal|last1=Lanfranco|first1=Guido|title=Xogħol tal-Iskjavi fost il-Maltin|journal=Programm Tal-Festa|date=2007|url=http://www.kappellimaltin.com/XogholTasSkjaviFostIlMaltin.pdf|publisher=Għaqda Mużikali San Leonardu|location=[[Kirkop]]|language=mt|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415104337/http://kappellimaltin.com/XogholTasSkjaviFostIlMaltin.pdf|archive-date=15 April 2016}}</ref>
[[File:The Beheading of Saint John-Caravaggio (1608).jpg|alt=|left|thumb|[[The Beheading of St John the Baptist (Caravaggio)|''The Beheading of Saint John'']] (1608) by Caravaggio ([[Saint John's Co-Cathedral]], Valletta, Malta)]]
Major works from his Malta period include the ''[[The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (Caravaggio)|Beheading of Saint John the Baptist]]'', his largest ever work, and the only painting to which he put his signature, ''[[Saint Jerome Writing (Caravaggio, Valletta)|Saint Jerome Writing]]'' (both housed in [[Saint John's Co-Cathedral]], [[Valletta]], [[Malta]]) and a ''[[Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and his Page]]'', as well as portraits of other leading Knights.<ref name="sammut"/> According to Andrea Pomella, ''The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist'' is widely considered "one of the most important works in Western painting."<ref name="CaravaggioPomella2005">{{Cite book|last=Pomella|first=Andrea|title=Caravaggio: an artist through images|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JDH4lOa8qRgC&pg=PA106|access-date=28 June 2010|year=2005|publisher=ATS Italia Editrice|isbn=978-88-88536-62-0|page=106}}</ref> Completed in 1608, the painting had been commissioned by the Knights of Malta as an [[altarpiece]]<ref name="CaravaggioPomella2005"/><ref>Varriano (2006), pp. 74, 116.</ref> and measuring {{Convert|370|x|520|cm|in|round=5}} was the largest altarpiece Caravaggio painted.<ref name="Patrick2007">{{Cite book|last=Patrick|first=James|title=Renaissance and Reformation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i6ZJlLHLPY8C&pg=PA194|year=2007|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=978-0-7614-7651-1|page=194}}</ref> It still hangs in [[St. John's Co-Cathedral]], for which it was commissioned and where Caravaggio himself was inducted and briefly served as a knight.<ref name="Rowland2005">{{Cite book|last=Rowland|first=Ingrid Drake|title=From heaven to Arcadia: the sacred and the profane in the Renaissance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yke1Kx4v9sYC&pg=PA163|year=2005|publisher=New York Review of Books|isbn=978-1-59017-123-3|page=163}}</ref><ref name="Patrick2007"/>

Yet, by late August 1608, he was arrested and imprisoned,<ref name="sammut"/> likely the result of yet another brawl, this time with an aristocratic knight, during which the door of a house was battered down and the knight seriously wounded.<ref name="sammut"/><ref>{{cite journal|first=Keith|last=Sciberras|title=Frater Michael Angelus in tumultu: the cause of Caravaggio's imprisonment in Malta|journal=The Burlington Magazine|issue=CXLV|date=April 2002|pages=229–232}} and {{cite journal|first=Keith|last=Sciberras|title=Riflessioni su Malta al tempo del Caravaggio|journal=Paragone Arte|volume=LII|issue=629|date=July 2002|pages=3–20}} Sciberras' findings are summarised online at [http://caravaggio.com/preview/attach/data01/D000199.htm Caravaggio.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060310151813/http://caravaggio.com/preview/attach/data01/D000199.htm |date=10 March 2006 }}</ref> Caravaggio was imprisoned by the Knights at [[Valletta]], but he managed to escape. By December, he had been expelled from the Order "as a foul and rotten member", a formal phrase used in all such cases.<ref>The senior Knights of the Order convened on 1 December 1608 and, after verifying that the accused had failed to appear, although summoned four times, voted unanimously to expel their ''putridum et foetidum'' ex-brother. Caravaggio was expelled, not for his crime, but for having left Malta without permission (i.e., escaping).</ref>

==== Sicily ====

[[File:Room of caravaggio, regional museum od of messina.JPG|thumb|''[[The Raising of Lazarus (Caravaggio)|The Raising of Lazarus]]'' and the ''[[Adoration of the Shepherds (Caravaggio)|Adoration of the Shepherds]]'', [[Regional Museum of Messina]], Sicily, Italy]]

Caravaggio made his way to [[Sicily]] where he met his old friend Mario Minniti, who was now married and living in [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]]. Together they set off on what amounted to a triumphal tour from Syracuse to [[Messina]] and, maybe, on to the island capital, [[Palermo]]. In Syracuse and Messina Caravaggio continued to win prestigious and well-paid commissions. Among other works from this period are ''[[Burial of St. Lucy (Caravaggio)|Burial of St. Lucy]]'', ''[[The Raising of Lazarus - Messina (Caravaggio)|The Raising of Lazarus]]'', and ''[[Adoration of the Shepherds (Caravaggio)|Adoration of the Shepherds]]''. His style continued to evolve, showing now friezes of figures isolated against vast empty backgrounds. "His great Sicilian altarpieces isolate their shadowy, pitifully poor figures in vast areas of darkness; they suggest the desperate fears and frailty of man, and at the same time convey, with a new yet desolate tenderness, the beauty of humility and of the meek, who shall inherit the earth."<ref>Langdon, p.365.</ref> Contemporary reports depict a man whose behaviour was becoming increasingly bizarre, which included sleeping fully armed and in his clothes, ripping up a painting at a slight word of criticism, and mocking local painters.

Caravaggio displayed bizarre behaviour from very early in his career. Mancini describes him as "extremely crazy", a letter from Del Monte notes his strangeness, and Minniti's 1724 biographer says that Mario left Caravaggio because of his behaviour. The strangeness seems to have increased after Malta. Susinno's early-18th-century ''Le vite de' pittori Messinesi'' ("Lives of the Painters of Messina") provides several colourful anecdotes of Caravaggio's erratic behaviour in Sicily, and these are reproduced in modern full-length biographies such as Langdon and Robb. Bellori writes of Caravaggio's "fear" driving him from city to city across the island and finally, "feeling that it was no longer safe to remain", back to Naples. Baglione says Caravaggio was being "chased by his enemy", but like Bellori does not say who this enemy was.

==== Return to Naples ====

[[File:CaravaggioSalomeMadrid.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Caravaggio, Madrid)|Salome with the Head of John the Baptist]]'', [[Royal Palace of Madrid]]]]

After only nine months in Sicily, Caravaggio returned to Naples in the late summer of 1609. According to his earliest biographer, he was being pursued by enemies while in Sicily and felt it safest to place himself under the protection of the Colonnas until he could secure his pardon from the pope (now [[Paul V]]) and return to Rome.<ref>Baglione says that Caravaggio in Naples had "given up all hope of revenge" against his unnamed enemy.</ref> In Naples he painted ''[[The Denial of Saint Peter (Caravaggio)|The Denial of Saint Peter]]'', a final ''[[John the Baptist (Caravaggio)|John the Baptist (Borghese)]]'', and his last picture, ''[[The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula (Caravaggio)|The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula]]''. His style continued to evolve—[[Saint Ursula]] is caught in a moment of highest action and drama, as the arrow fired by the king of the [[Huns]] strikes her in the breast, unlike earlier paintings that had all the immobility of the posed models. The brushwork was also much freer and more impressionistic.

[[File:David with the Head of Goliath-Caravaggio (1610).jpg|thumb|upright=.8|''[[David with the Head of Goliath (Caravaggio, Rome)|David with the Head of Goliath]]'', 1609–1610, [[Galleria Borghese]], Rome]]
In October 1609, he was involved in a violent clash, an attempt on his life, perhaps ambushed by men in the pay of the knight he had wounded in Malta or some other faction of the Order. His face was seriously disfigured and rumours circulated in Rome that he was dead. He painted a ''[[Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Madrid) (Caravaggio)|Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Madrid)]]'', showing his own head on a platter, and sent it to Wignacourt as a plea for forgiveness. Perhaps at this time, he also painted a ''[[David with the Head of Goliath (Caravaggio, Rome)|David with the Head of Goliath]]'', showing the young David with a strangely sorrowful expression gazing at the severed head of the giant, which is again Caravaggio. This painting he may have sent to his patron, the unscrupulous art-loving Cardinal [[Scipione Borghese]], nephew of the pope, who had the power to grant or withhold pardons.<ref>According to a 17th-century writer, the painting of the head of Goliath is a self-portrait of the artist, while David is ''il suo Caravaggino'', "his little Caravaggio". This phrase is obscure, but it has been interpreted as meaning either that the boy is a youthful self-portrait or, more commonly, that this is the Cecco who modeled for the ''Amor Vincit''. The sword-blade carries an abbreviated inscription that has been interpreted as meaning Humility Conquers Pride. Attributed to a date in Caravaggio's late Roman period by Bellori, the recent tendency is to see it as a product of Caravaggio's second Neapolitan period. (See Gash, p.125).</ref> Caravaggio hoped Borghese could mediate a pardon in exchange for works by the artist.

News from Rome encouraged Caravaggio, and in the summer of 1610, he took a boat northwards to receive the pardon, which seemed imminent thanks to his powerful Roman friends. With him were three last paintings, the gifts for Cardinal Scipione.<ref>A letter from the [[Bishop of Caserta]] in Naples to Cardinal Scipione Borghese in Rome, dated 29 July 1610, informs the Cardinal that the Marchesa of Caravaggio is holding two John the Baptists and a Magdalene that were intended for Borghese. These were presumably the price of Caravaggio's pardon from Borghese's uncle, the pope.</ref> What happened next is the subject of much confusion and conjecture, shrouded in much mystery.

The bare facts seem to be that on 28 July, an anonymous ''[[avviso]]'' (private newsletter) from Rome to the ducal court of Urbino reported that Caravaggio was dead. Three days later, another ''avviso'' said that he had died of fever on his way from Naples to Rome. A poet friend of the artist later gave 18 July as the date of death, and a recent researcher claims to have discovered a death notice showing that the artist died on that day of a fever in [[Porto Ercole]], near [[Grosseto]] in [[Tuscany]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Drancourt|first1=Michel|last2=Barbieri|first2=Rémi|last3=Cilli|first3=Elisabetta|last4=Gruppioni|first4=Giorgio|last5=Bazaj|first5=Alda|last6=Cornaglia|first6=Giuseppe|title=Did Caravaggio die of ''Staphylococcus aureus'' sepsis?|date=17 September 2018|journal=The Lancet|volume=18|issue=11|page=1178|doi=10.1016/S1473-3099(18)30571-1|pmid=30236439|doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Death ===

Caravaggio had a fever at the time of his death, and what killed him was a matter of controversy and rumour at the time and has been a matter of historical debate and study since.<ref name=geggel>{{cite web |url=https://www.livescience.com/63702-caravaggio-died-of-sepsis.html |title=Renaissance Master Caravaggio Didn't Die of Syphilis, but of Sepsis |work=Live Science |author=Laura Geggel |date=28 September 2018 |access-date=30 September 2018}}</ref> Contemporary rumours held that either the Tomassoni family or the Knights had him killed in revenge. Traditionally historians have long thought he died of [[syphilis]].<ref name=geggel/> Some have said he had [[malaria]], or possibly [[brucellosis]] from [[Pasteurization|unpasteurised]] dairy.<ref name=geggel/> Some scholars have argued that Caravaggio was actually attacked and killed by the same "enemies" that had been pursuing him since he fled Malta, possibly Wignacourt or factions of the Knights.<ref>Robb argues this in ''M'' beginning in chapter 20.</ref>

Caravaggio's remains were buried in Porto Ercole's San Sebastiano cemetery, which closed in 1956, and then moved to St. Erasmus cemetery, where, in 2010, archaeologists conducted a year-long investigation of remains found in three crypts and after using DNA, carbon dating, and other methods. They believe with a high degree of confidence that they have identified those of Caravaggio.<ref>{{cite news | access-date = 6 October 2021 | work = The Florentine | title = Caravaggio's Remains| url = https://www.theflorentine.net/2010/07/01/caravaggios-remains/ | date= 1 July 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10333158 |title= Church bones 'belong to Caravaggio', researchers say |publisher=BBC News |date=16 June 2010 |access-date=18 November 2012}}</ref> Initial tests suggested Caravaggio might have died of [[lead poisoning]]—paints used at the time contained high amounts of lead salts, and Caravaggio is known to have indulged in violent behavior, as caused by lead poisoning.<ref>{{cite news|author=Tom Kington |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jun/16/caravaggio-italy-remains-ravenna-art |title=The mystery of Caravaggio's death solved at last – painting killed him |newspaper=The Guardian |date= 16 June 2010|access-date=18 November 2012 |location=London}}</ref> Later research concluded he died as the result of a wound sustained in a brawl in Naples, specifically from [[sepsis]] caused by [[Staphylococcus aureus]].<ref>Drancourt, M., Barbieri, R., Cilli, E., Gruppioni, G., Bazaj, A., Cornaglia, G., & Raoult, D. (2018). "[https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(18)30571-1/fulltext Did Caravaggio die of ''Staphylococcus aureus'' sepsis?]". ''The Lancet Infectious Diseases'', 18(11), 1178; 1 November 2018, {{doi|10.1016/S1473-3099(18)30571-1}}.</ref>

Vatican documents released in 2002 support the theory that the wealthy Tomassoni family had him hunted down and killed as a vendetta for Caravaggio's murder of gangster Ranuccio Tomassoni, in a botched attempt at castration after a duel over the affections of model Fillide Melandroni.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/1396127/Red-blooded-Caravaggio-killed-love-rival-in-bungled-castration-attempt.html|title=Red-blooded Caravaggio killed love rival in bungled castration attempt|first=Catherine |last=Milner |date=1 June 2002|via=The Telegraph |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230604223719/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/1396127/Red-blooded-Caravaggio-killed-love-rival-in-bungled-castration-attempt.html |archive-date= Jun 4, 2023 }}</ref>