Caravaggios madness caused by lead poisoning

By Nick Squires in Rome Published: 6:39PM GMT twenty-two February 2010

Italian Baroque house house painter Caravaggio Photo: HULTON ARCHIVE

A group of anthropologists goal to infer their speculation by carrying out DNA tests on skeleton that they hold are the stays of the Renaissance artist.

Caravaggio was eminent for his prohibited temper, complicated celebration and aroused spirit and was forced to go on the run in 1606 after murdering a man in a beer hall brawl, a crime for that he was cursed to genocide by Pope Paul V.

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He died in Jul 1610 at the age of 39, with poser surrounding the resources of his genocide ever since.

It has been referred to he engaged syphilis or even that he was assassinated but anthropologists from the universities of Pisa, Ravenna and Bologna are study alternative theories that he engaged malaria whilst travelling in Italy or that he suffered from lead poisoning.

"Lead poisoning accentuates traits similar to assertive and shaken behaviour, that Caravaggio displayed during his life," pronounced Silvano Vinceti, the group leader.

"Painters in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries used these paints all the time and mostly suffered critical health problems as a result."

Francisco de Goya and Vincent outpost Gogh are both thought to have suffered from lead poisoning.

The try to settle how and where Caravaggio died coincides with the 400th anniversary of his death, that is being distinguished with vital exhibitions in Italy, together with a pick up of twenty-four of his most appropriate well known functions that went on arrangement in Rome at the weekend.

The anthropologists have started study a large pick up of skeleton that they exhumed from a shrine underneath a church in Porto Ercole, on the seashore of Tuscany, where Caravaggio is believed to have died.

They have identified 9 sets of skeleton that review the age and estimated status of Caravaggio.

They will afterwards review the DNA from the skeleton with vital descendants of the artist"s brother, who still live close to the artist"s birthplace, nearby Bergamo in northern Italy.

Once they have reliable that they have found Caravaggio"s remains, they will break down into parts the skeleton for justification of lead poisoning.

The artist, whose full name was Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, pioneered the "chiaroscuro" portrayal technique in that light and shade are dramatically contrasted.