In Milan thirteen Michelangelo Merisi returned in 1584 to become a disciple of maestro Simone Petertsano, who initiated him into the mysteries of art. In 1588 he left Milan and goes to Venice, and for this hasty departure, other biographers guess dramatic facts: Caravaggio allegedly injured or killed someone in a duel and could no longer stay in the city.

The most fruitful period of the artist, no doubt, related to Rome, where he appeared in 1592. Initially, Caravaggio worked for several prominent artists, depicting still life or a fine finishing details on the big picture, but soon because of their exceptional talent, he drew the attention of the rich and high-level customers, is seeking fame and success. Its patron is the Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, an intellectual, not alien, despite the priesthood, secular interests. Thanks to him, Caravaggio performs its first large order - a series of paintings from the life of the apostle Matthew to the church of San Luigi dei Francesi. In the history of art by Caravaggio came as a revolutionary light and space, organize them for his paintings in a quite peculiar way.
Despite a lot of orders, the success and fame, Caravaggio, as any outstanding artist, ahead of its time, was confronted with incomprehension. In proportion as his fame grew, more and more manifest aggressive, quarrelsome and irascible character of Caravaggio, his arguments often end with fights and duels. His stay in prison Tor di Nona were quite frequent, but the real tragedy was enacted in 1606, when during an argument he had killed some Ranuchchio Tommazoni and was forced to flee from Rome. The court verdict was harsh: the artist was sentenced to decapitation and the death penalty could result in the execution of anyone who recognizes him on the street.
The last four years of his brief but tumultuous life of Caravaggio spent in wandering. A year he spent Naples, then moved to the island of Malta, where he was greeted with honors, and even accepted into the ranks of famous knights of the Order. At the time, shocked by a death sentence handed down in Rome, he begins to paint on his canvases headless figures of biblical history, in terms of which a vague resemblance to guess himself.
This man, endowed with exceptional talent in art, was both at his own worst enemy because of the unrestrained and ill-temper.

In Valletta, he quarreled with one of the knights of Malta, a senior in rank, and was thrown into prison, where he miraculously managed to escape and flee to neighboring Sicily. Fearing reprisals, Caravaggio constantly moving from one city to another, and then sailed to Naples, where in 1609 he is attacked the envoys of the Maltese Knights. Simultaneously, influential friends of the artist busy to lift him the death penalty. Caravaggio is heading to Rome, where the Tuscan port town of Porto Ercole overtook his untimely death. He was only 38 years old, and sudden death also left a mystery - she followed it by reason of illness, as is commonly believed, or that a hand of his enemies?
From: http://www.stoletie.ru/kultura/karav...2010-08-19.htm
Interesting article: http://forum.artinvestment.ru/showth...B4%D0%B6%D0%BE