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400 years later, the mystery of Caravaggio's death resolved?
© Eric Vandeville / Blackarchives

Italy. 2/2010
--- 400th anniversary of Caravaggio’s death.
The master of light, shadow and emotion is back on center stage after 400 years.
DNA Tests Could Solve Mystery of Baroque Master Caravaggio's Death---
The mystery surrounding the death of Baroque master Caravaggio may soon be resolved thanks to new DNA tests -- as long as the right body can be found.
What caused the death of the painter in 1610 and the whereabouts of his corpse have always been unclear.
But a team of Italian anthropologists believe that what is left of Caravaggio's body may be hidden among dozens of bodies buried in a crypt in Tuscany, thanks to recent historical clues.
The team -- armed with a CAT scan and kits for carbon dating -- plan to study the painter's exhumed remains to discover how he died.
"If we are lucky enough to find Caravaggio's skull, we will also be able to do a reconstruction of his face, just as we did in 2007 for Dante Alighieri," said Silvano Vinceti, head of the National Committee for Cultural Heritage.
Scholars have put forward many theories about Caravaggio's death. The most popular are that the painter was assassinated for religious reasons or collapsed with malaria on a deserted Tuscan beach.
However, in 2001 an Italian researcher claimed to have found the painter's death certificate, which allegedly proved that he died in hospital.
"This historical document shows Caravaggio did not die alone on the beach but after three days in hospital, which means the body must have been buried in the San Sebastiano cemetery," said Vinceti, referring to a Tuscan town near the city of Grosseto.
But in 1956, bodies buried at the tiny San Sebastiano graveyard were moved to the new cemetery of Porto Ercole, and scholars hope that the remains of Caravaggio will be among them.
The team -- from the departments of Anthropology and Cultural Heritage Conservation at the universities of Ravenna and Bologna -- will have to examine the bones of between 30 and 40 people, selecting those that belong to young men who died at the beginning of the 17th century.
"We will check the DNA extracted from the bones and teeth of possible matches against that of the painter's male descendents," said Professor Giorgio Gruppioni, who will head the team.
"Sadly Caravaggio died childless," said Gruppioni, "but his siblings had children whose relatives are still living in the northern Italian town that carries his name."
Caravaggio, who pioneered the Baroque painting technique of contrasting light and dark known as chiaroscuro,He is famed for his wild life. Legend has it that he was on his way to Rome to seek pardon for killing a man in a brawl when he died.

Caravaggio was born in 1571, the son of a mason in Lombardy. He was the last great master of the Italian Renaissance and pioneered the baroque painting technique known as chiaroscuro, in which light and shadow are sharply contrasted. Paintings such as Bacchus, The Supper at Emmaus and Sacrifice of Isaac were criticised at the time for their expressionist style but have influenced artists ever since. He is famed for his wild life. Legend has it that he was on his way to Rome to seek pardon for killing a man in a brawl when he died. He died on July 18, 1610, exactly 400 years ago.

ROME’S CARAVAGGIO EXHIBITION
An exhibition in Rome commemorates Baroque master Caravaggio, who revolutionized the art world with his realism and intensity.The show brings together 24 paintings from museums across Europe and the United States of undisputed authenticity on the 400th anniversary of the painter's death. Curators said they aimed to present the true Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) after a century in which many works of other artists have been falsely attributed to him.The exhibit takes place at the Scuderie del Quirinale, a museum fashioned from the stables of Rome's Quirinal Palace, and runs through June 13.
The Rome exhibition is organized chronologically and divided into the three main periods of Caravaggio's short career. Caravaggio, who died when he was 39, painted for 18 years and produced relatively few pieces. Periods of intense creation were interspersed with long periods of artistic rest.


PHOTO: ERIC VANDEVILLE
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Design e art direction: Claudia Neri - Assistant: Claudia Rea - Teikna Design

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