Caravaggio's Criminal File

Caravaggio's police record reads like a crime novel. Between 1600 and 1606 he was arrested or investigated for throwing a plate of artichokes in a waiter's face, carrying weapons without a license, breaking windows, throwing stones at officers, and brawling repeatedly in Rome's streets. His temper was notorious even by the violent standards of Baroque Rome — and it finally caught up with him in the fatal 1606 fight that sent him fleeing the city for good.