This is the story of Caravaggio’s crazy life , he lived fast and violently, rising in Rome as a brilliant but volatile painter whose raw realism shocked the art world. In 1606 he killed Ranuccio Tomassoni, during a dispute and was forced to flee Rome with a death sentence over his head. He moved through Naples and then to Malta, where he briefly found favour with the Knights of St John before falling into trouble again and escaping imprisonment. From there he drifted through Sicily, producing some of his darkest, most stripped-back works while constantly on the run. Hoping for a pardon, he tried to return toward Rome, but in 1610 he died under unclear circumstances in Porto Ercole, exhausted, sick, and still a fugitive. In this episode we explore what really happened.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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