A Knight, Briefly

On the run, Caravaggio reached Malta in 1607 and won a prize most artists could only dream of: in 1608 the Knights of St John made him a knight of their order. The honor lasted barely five months. After a brawl in which a senior knight was wounded, he was jailed in an island fortress, escaped, and was expelled in absence — branded by the order as "a putrid and fetid member."

Despite his criminal reputation, Caravaggio's influence spread across Europe within years. Followers called Caravaggisti adopted his dramatic lighting and street-level realism in Utrecht, Naples, and Seville, transforming Baroque painting permanently.