Artist Stories

How Did Caravaggio Die? The Answer Is Not Easy

Zuzanna Stańska 28 September 2023 min Read

Caravaggio was a great artist, no doubt about it, but he was also rowdy. An early published notice on him, 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.”

In 1606 he killed a young man in a fight and fled from Rome with a price on his head. He was later involved in a brawl in Malta in 1608, and another in Naples in 1609, possibly a deliberate attempt on his life by unidentified enemies. This encounter left him severely injured. But how did Caravaggio die?

Caravaggio, Narcissus, 1597-99, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica a Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy.  caravaggio death
Caravaggio, Narcissus, 1597-1699, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica a Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy.

A year later, at the age of 38, he died under mysterious circumstances in Porto Ercole in Tuscany, reportedly from a fever while on his way to Rome to receive a pardon. There are a couple of theories explaining Caravaggio’s death, including those mentioning malaria and simple sunstroke. However, lately Italian scientists and researchers suggested new theories:

1. Lead Poisoning

Caravaggio, Boy Bitten by a Lizard, 1593–1594, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK. caravaggio death
Caravaggio, Boy Bitten by a Lizard, 1593–1594, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK.

Italian scientists in 2010 said they are “85% sure” they found Caravaggio’s bones, thanks to carbon dating and DNA checks on remains excavated in Tuscany. This suspected skeleton contains levels of lead high enough to have driven the painter mad and helped finish him off. Lead poisoning won’t kill you on its own, but it is believed it helped to infect wounds and caused sunstroke that killed the great artist. What’s interesting, art historians already suspect that Goya and Van Gogh may have suffered from the ill effects of the lead in their paints too.

2. Murder by the Knights of Malta

Caravaggio, Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1598–1599, National Gallery of Ancient Art, Rome, Italy. caravaggio death
Caravaggio, Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1598–1599, National Gallery of Ancient Art, Rome, Italy.

In 2012, a new theory was put forward. According to professor Pacelli of the University of Naples, Caravaggio was killed in cold blood on the orders of the Knights of Malta to avenge an attack on one of their members. Professor Pacelli unearthed documents from the Vatican Secret Archives and from archives in Rome which suggest that the artist was instead murdered by the Knights of Malta. They then threw his body in the sea at Palo, near Civitavecchia, north of Rome. This “state-sponsored assassination” was carried out with the secret approval of the Vatican. This theory might also explain Caravaggio’s death.

 

Recommended

Jean-Michel Basquiat at an exhibition of his work in 1988, Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York, NY, USA. Photograph vt Julio Donoso via The Guardian. Artist Stories

Like a Flame – Jean-Michel Basquiat in 5 Paintings

He started out a couch-surfing throwaway. One day, a painting of his would sell for the highest price ever for an American artist at a public...

Helen Jeffery 20 November 2023

Marlow Moss, White, Black and Red, 1950, Sotheby’s Artist Stories

Marlow Moss: The Queer Abstract Artist Who Influenced Mondrian

Largely forgotten until recent years, Marlow Moss transcended the rigid boundaries of traditional art and binary gender expression. The 20th-century...

Emily Snow 16 October 2023

Artist Stories

Powerful or Problematic? Robert Mapplethorpe’s Photographs

Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe shocked the world with his images of bondage, gay sex, female bodybuilders and naked black men. Technically brilliant or politically problematic, what do you think?

Candy Bedworth 7 August 2023

Piero della Francesca Artist Stories

Piero della Francesca: Artist, Mathematician, Humanist

Piero della Francesca was not only an accomplished artist of the Early Renaissance, but also one of the greatest mathematicians of his day. His works...

Natalia Iacobelli 13 September 2023