Dial M for murder
Mercenary and magical
Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane. By Andrew Graham-Dixon. Allen Lane; 544 pages; £30. Buy from Amazon.co.uk
MICHELANGELO MERISI, called Caravaggio, died in Porto Ercole on the Tuscan coast on July 18th or 19th 1610. No one knows for sure because he died alone. Even so, we know more about him now than any of his contemporaries did. Persistent research has found much fresh evidence in Italian and Maltese archives. The most recent discovery, announced in Rome last month and based on a postmortem of bones that were probably Caravaggio's, suggests he died of sunstroke and syphilis, aggravated by lead poisoning from the paints he mixed. This news came too late for Andrew Graham-Dixon's absorbing biography, which otherwise leaves no stone unturned.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline "Dial M for murder"
From the July 3rd 2010 edition
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