Caravaggio takes a boat northwards in the summer of 1610 to receive the pardon, which seems imminent thanks to his powerful Roman friends.

With him are three last paintings, gifts for Cardinal Scipione.

What happened next is the subject of much confusion and conjecture.

The bare facts are that on July 28 an anonymous avviso (private newsletter) from Rome to the ducal court of Urbino reported that Caravaggio was dead.

Three days later another avviso said that he had died of fever on his way from Naples to Rome.

A poet friend of the artist later gave July 18 as the date of death, and a recent researcher claims to have discovered a death notice showing that the artist died on that day of a fever in Porto Ercole, near Grosseto in Tuscany.

Human remains found in a church in Porto Ercole in 2010 are believed to almost certainly belong to Caravaggio.

The findings come after a yearlong investigation using DNA, carbon dating and other analysis.