Editing Caravaggio (section)

==== 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>