Just some of the things the Italian painter Caravaggio was accused of during his notorious career.
Despite the troubled life he led and his early death at just 38 he was a prolific artist, created some of the most stunning works and became known as one of the fathers of modern painting.
His style is one of unflinching realism with a direct appeal to the emotions.
The works we visit during our tour to Sicily and Malta were created during his flight from justice for a murder committed in Rome. Standing in front of these extraordinary works it’s hard not to be physically moved by their breath-taking beauty and realism.
It was while he was in Malta that he worked on the largest of his paintings, The Beheading of St John, created for the oratory of what is now the Cocathedral in Valletta.
It’s the only one of his works that bears his signature, spelled out in the blood that gushes from St John’s neck.
Caravaggio died in Porto Ercole, Tuscany in 1610 and was buried in an unmarked grave.
