Caravaggio's Criminal Record

Caravaggio was a brilliant artist but he was one with a short temper. Much of his early troubles are not recorded but once his reputation as an artist grew his rap sheet did as well. Between 1600 and 1606 his name appeared in police records no less than fourteen times. Six of those occasions landed him in jail. Many of these instances were for minor altercations including carrying arms without permission, throwing stones at an officer, and throwing a plate of artichokes at a waiter. Caravaggio’s powerful alliances with Rome’s elite helped him to avoid much jail time.

In 1606, things went a little differently for Caravaggio when the results of a tennis match turned ugly. Caravaggio and his opponent got into an argument which turned into a brawl which resulted in Caravaggio being badly wounded and his opponent, Ranuccio Tomassoni being killed at the hand of Caravaggio. Though wounded, Caravaggio went on the run, moving from city to city outside the jurisdiction of the Papal authorities in Rome.

In 1607, Caravaggio was in Malta where he was offered a knighthood by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. An insult to one of the knights landed him in jail and stripped him of his knighthood. With no powerful friends to come to his rescue, Caravaggio managed to escape the prison and flee to Sicily.

In Sicily his temper caused him more problems and he traveled back to Naples where he was in a bar fight that nearly cost him his life.

In 1610, Caravaggio took a boat back toward Rome awaiting a pardon from the Pope. He landed at Palo where he was, this time, mistakenly arrested and imprisoned for a couple of days. Upon his release he discovered that the boat carrying all of his possessions had left him so he started out to overtake the boat. He arrived at Port’Ercole where he died, perhaps of pneumonia, just days before his pardon arrived.