A professor from the University of Naples, Vincenzo Pacelli, has revealed research from the Italian state archives as well as the archives of the Vatican, which, he says shows that the renowned 16th/17th century artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was assassinated on the orders of the Knights of Malta in the town of Palo Laziale in Lazio.

It is known that the Italian artist had been on the run from the Knights of Malta after having escaped from incarceration in Malta for offences that are still debated to this day. Tradition has it that Caravaggio eventually died in Porto Ercole in Tuscany from an illness, but that has always been disputed by academics.

But now 402 years after the master’s death in 1610, Prof. Pacelli, a Caravaggio expert, has contested all that and also says that the assassination had been carried out with the “tacit consent of the Church in Rome”.

Italian scientists hoping to find out more about his death recently retrieved the remains of the Renaissance artist. They had been kept in a special container called an ossuary in the town of Porto Ercole in Italy.

The cause of Caravaggio’s death has been something of a mystery and various theories have been advanced over the years. Among the most common are that he was assassinated for religious reasons, or that he collapsed with malaria or typhoid on a deserted beach. One scholar believes he may have died from typhus in hospital in 1610. Another theory, which could tie in with that of Prof. Pacelli, was that he had been wounded in a fight in a tavern in Naples in 1609 and died of a fever in July 1610.

Caravaggio pioneered the Baroque painting technique known as chiaroscuro, in which light and shadow are sharply contrasted. But it was his wild lifestyle that has captured just as many imaginations as his art. He was famed for starting brawls, often ended up in jail, and even killed a man.

He was born in 1571 or 1573, depending on which history text one reads, and spent the last few years of his life fleeing justice in southern Italy. He was allegedly on his way to Rome to seek a pardon when he died.