Who would have known that after all the years, Caravaggio could still piss off some art historians?
Italian art historians 'find 100 Caravaggio paintings' - Telegraph
But the announcement came out of the blue, caused an immediate storm in the art world and raised as many questions as it answered. Fun guy he was:
Caravaggio, who lived from 1571 to 1610, was notorious for his mercurial temper and penchant for brawling.
He had to flee Rome for Sicily after a fight in which he killed a man. He later became involved in a brawl in Malta in which he wounded a knight.
His death, at the age of 36 in Porto Ercole on the coast of Tuscany, has been blamed variously on malaria, an intestinal infection and lead poisoning. In April an Italian art historian put forward a new theory – that the artist was murdered on the orders of the Knights of Malta to avenge the attack on one of their members.
Vincenzo Pacelli said he had found evidence in the Vatican Secret Archives and other sources in Rome that the chivalric order, which was formed during the Crusades, had Caravaggio’s body dumped in the sea near Civitavecchia north of Rome.
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