Italian painter Michelangelo Merigi da Caravaggio was BOTD in 1571. Born in Milan, he was apprenticed to painter Simone Peterzano. In 1592, he fled to Rome after assaulting a police officer and found work with Papal favourite Giuseppe Cesari. Caravaggio’s religious paintings broke with classical conventions, portraying his subjects with unadorned realism, caught in moments of psychological drama. He typically painted with live models (many of whom were prostitutes), casting them in pools of bright light bordered by dramatic shadows. After committing a murder, he fled to Venice and then Rome but was frequently in and out of prison. In 1606 he killed Ranuccio Tommasoni in a duel, and was sentenced to death. He fled Rome for Naples and Malta, eventually settling in Sicily where he continued to attract important commissions. His fear of execution found its way into his many paintings of Biblical beheadings, using his own face as the model for the severed heads of Goliath and John the Baptist. He was stabbed to death, possibly in revenge for the Tommasoni murder, in 1610, aged 38. Caravaggio had a number of affairs with women, though rumours circulated during his lifetime that he was also a sodomite. Historians and art critics have continued to debate his sexuality, noting his many portraits of beautiful young men, erotically charged portraits of Jesus and the Disciples and his lack of interest in painting female nudes. Hailed in the late 20th century as a queer icon, his work inspired a number of poems by Anglo-American writer Thom Gunn, and a 1986 biopic directed by Derek Jarman and starring Nigel Terry. He was also portrayed by Daniele Rienzo in the 2025 TV drama series Ripley (adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr Ripley), in which Andrew Scott‘s artist-murderer Ripley draws inspiration from the painter’s criminal escapades.