Diapositiva 1

Caravaggio’s paintings in Berlin

© by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library Caravaggio’s final years

1606-1610© by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library Caravaggio’s character and personal life were even darker and more controversial than his paintings.

© by author He had a police record many pages long, filled withESCMID stories of Onlineassault, illegalLecture weapons, Library harassing the police and complex affairs with prostitutes. On the 28th of May, 1606, following a disputed match of pallacorda, Caravaggio and his friends were involved in a street brawl with Caravaggio's young foe Ranuccio Tomassoni and his gang.

Caravaggio ended up dealing the young Tomassoni a fatal stab wound in the groin.© by author

With a price on his head,ESCMID Caravaggio Online was Lecture Library forced to flee Rome.

The artist's last years were spent desperately running from one city to another. After stopping by Naples, he travelled to Malta, only to get into trouble after yet another brawl. Caravaggio was imprisoned by the Knights in August 1608 and later expelled from the Order "as a foul and rotten member."

© by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library The artist escaped once again and was back on the run. After some time spent in Sicily, unknown assailants attempted to murder Caravaggio in Neaples, succeeding in disfiguring his face.

Contemporaries described the artist as a madman during this time, exhibiting© by author increasingly strange behavior and explodingESCMID into aOnline violent Lecture Library rage at the slightest provocation. Caravaggio’s final days

9-18© byJuly author 1610 ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library On or around 9 July 1610, Caravaggio left from the Colonna Palace in Chiaia and, ‘suffering the bitterest pain’ (Bellori) embarked on a felucca travelling from Naples to Rome. The felucca had a sufficiently large hold to carry bulky pictures packed, and actually Caravaggio had three paintings with him, namely two of St John© theby Baptist author and one of Mary Magdalen. ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library According to Bellori, the An insatiable collector, painter felt confident to Borghese agreed to return to Rome because he help obtain Caravaggio’s had ‘by then obtained his pardon, but only if the freedom from the pope artist gave him entire through the intercession of stock of unsold pictures Cardinal Gonzaga’. as soon as he got to But the young cardinal Rome. seems to have acted only That the pardon had through the papal nephew, not yet been officially Scipione Borghese. agreed might help to © by author explain why things would go so badly ESCMID Online Lecturewrong Library for him on his journey to Rome. After a week, the felucca docked at Palo, a high-security fort manned by a Spanish garrison, 20 miles west of Rome. When he was ashore the Spanish guard arrested him by mistake, … and held him prisoner. Although he was soon released, the felucca … was no longer to be found (Bellori).

© by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library On the beach where he arrived, he was mistakenly captured and held for two days in prison and when he was released, his boat was no longer to be found. This made him furious, and in desperation he started out along the beach under the heath of July sun, trying to catch sight of the vessel that had his belongings. Finally, he came to a place where he was put to bed with a raging fever; and so, without the aid of God or man, in a few days he died, as miserably as he had lived.

© by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library Thus, in a miserable state of anxiety and desperation, he ran along the beach in the heat of the summer sun. Arriving at Porto Ercole, he collapsed and was seized by a malignant fever that killed him in a few days, at about forty years of age, in 1609.

Giovanni Pietro Bellori, Le vite de’ pittori, scultori, e architetti moderni.

At Port’Ercole he was stricken by a malignant fever and there, between© by author thirty-five and forty years of age, at the height of his success, he diedESCMID of privation Online without Lecture any help, Library and was buried nearby.

Giulio Mancini. Considerazioni sulla pittura, ca. 1617-21 © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library A faded piece of parchment, which has recently been found in the parish archives of San Sebastiano in Porto Ercole, is much more precise: Caravaggio died at a local infirmary.

But in 1956 that cemetery was destroyed, and human remains were translated to a crypt in a chapel of the municipal cemetery in Porto Ercole.

Over the past years, a multidisciplinary team has been seeking remains that fit Caravaggio's gender, height and age at death. © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library The physicochemical analysis of the soil around the bones (University of L’Aquila) showed full correspondence with the soil of the old cemetery.

© by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library “Questo pittore è un giovenaccio grande… con poco di barba negra grassotto con ciglia grosse et occhio negro, che porta li capelli grandi longhi dinanzi” © by author Luca, barber-surgeon Tribunal interrogation on 11 July ESCMID Online Lecture1597 in connection Library with a case of assault

Selection criteria:

* male * aged 35-40 years * height 165 cm © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library The anthropological analysis revealed that compatible bones belonged to as many as 9 different men…

ESCMID…but for Online only one Lecture of them the Library 14C test confirmed a datation around the beginning of the XVII century. © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library ICP mass spectrometry of Caravaggio's suspected bones reveals extremely elevated levels of lead. The lead represents another important clue, since it might well come from the paints (Caravaggio was known to be extremely messy with them).

© by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library The only direct line, descending from Michelangelo’s sister Caterina, ended in 1746. Seeking all MERISI and MERISIO… © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library Although the bone-extracted DNA was highly degradated, 11 of the 17 markers in the Y chromosome proved compatible with the “Merisi” haplotype.

DYS456 DYS389I DYS390 DYS389II

DYS458 DYS19 DYS385

DYS393 DYS391 © byDYS439 authorDYS635 DYS392 ESCMID Online Lecture Library YGATAH4 DYS437 DYS438 DYS448 Searching the “Merisi” haplotype in the word database YHRD (27,000 types of chromosome Y)

(A Midsummer© by Day author’s Nightmare) ESCMID Online Lecture Library A remarkable letter from the state archive of Naples

© by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library In a recently found letter to Scipione Borghese, dated 29 July 1610 (only 11 days after Caravaggio’s death) the papal nuncio in Naples Deodato Gentile pre-empts the account of Caravaggio’s death given by both Baglione and Bellori by many years. After acknowledging receipt of Borghese’s request for information, which had reached him on 24 July, he points out that: In the uproar, the felucca went back out into the open sea and© returned by author to Naples. Caravaggio stayed in prison, then freed himself by paying over a huge sum of money, and ESCMIDperhaps onOnline foot reached Lecture Port’Ercole Library by land, where, falling ill, he departed this life. On its return, the felucca brought the things he’d left behind to the house of Costanza Colonna, Marquise of Caravaggio, in Naples, from where the painter himself had left.

© by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library The issue is that the distance between Palo and Porto Ercole is some fifty miles, and according to the timeline the journey between the two places can only have taken a few days, possibly just a couple. Palo was a staging post, so even though the boat had a head start, Caravaggio could easily get to Porto Ercole first. He would simply have to ride post along© by the author coastal delivery route. With a change of horse he might cover the ESCMIDwhole distance Online in a singleLecture day. Library The timeline clarifies that the actual source of information could only be the skipper. Syphilis ? Malaria ? Lead poisoning ? Heat stroke ? Typhoid© by author fever ? ESCMIDBrucellosis Online Lecture Library? Wound infection ? Syphilis ?

ESCMIDAnna Bianchini,Online Lecture “Annuccia Library” © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author

ESCMIDFillide Online Melandroni Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library Maddalena Antognetti, “Lena” © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library Is syphilis a possible option ?

Gastrointestinal and neurological signs might well have mimicked typhoid fever. But they ©are by more author typical of acute - rather than chronic - ESCMIDsaturnism Online Lecture Library Heatstroke ?

Caravaggio died at the end of July, and that Summer has been reported as one of the hottest ever. The trip from© Paloby author to Porto Ercole was certainly not the most ESCMIDcomfortable Online one. Lecture Library Brucellosis ?

New findings suggest that the disease has been with us since at least the Middle Ages, if not earlier. But no clue© can by be author found on Caravaggio’s relics or in his natural ESCMIDstory (apart Online from Lecturehis stay in Library Malta). And the wording ‘malignant fever’ seems not to fit Brucellosis Malaria ? Porto Ercole was indeed a malaric area. But what about the timing? Caravaggio’s© by stay author was not longer than 2-3 days, and the ESCMIDshortest Online incubation Lecture time forLibrary malaria (P. falciparum) is not shorter than 7-9 days. Wound infection?

Caravaggio had certainly not recovered from the wounds received during the ambush in Naples. Bellori reports© bythat author on leaving Naples the painter was ‘suffering the bitterest ESCMIDpain’. Online Lecture Library

Working hypotheses

Malaria complications or sepsis (originated from wound infections) on a background of chronic lead poisoning. The terminal© crisis by author was possibly favoured by stress and adverse ESCMIDweather Onlineconditions. Lecture Library Can paleomicrobiology shed some light on the mistery of Caravaggio’s death? © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library © by author ESCMID Online Lecture Library Investigation by real-time PCR

• Plasmodium spp. • Yersinia pestis • Bacillus anthracis • Borrelia recurrentis • Bartonella quintana • Rickettsia prowazekii • Salmonella© en byterica author Typhi • Poxvirus ESCMID• Staphylococcus Online Lectureaureus Library • Treponema pallidum

To be continued…