Crypt searched for Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's bones

Crypt searched for Caravaggio's bones


PORTO ERCOLE, Italy, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A crypt in the Tuscan town of Porto Ercole, Italy, could contain the 400-year-old bones of artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, anthropologists said.

A team from Bologna University and Ravenna University planned to use infrared scanners, CAT scans, DNA analysis and carbon dating to solve the mystery of where Caravaggio, a master of chiaroscuro lighting, was buried, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Friday.

The crypt in Porto Ercole was the mostly likely of eight possible burial sites, said Caravaggio expert Maurizio Marini. Local church records said Caravaggio died in the town in 1610.

On Wednesday, the anthropologists began sorting through 30 to 40 sets of bones in the crypt to separate out those belonging to men around the age of 40 who might have died in the 17th century.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/12/11/Crypt-searched-for-Caravaggios-bones/UPI-25461260560983/

in college in 1980/81. I remember an account that said he was thought to have died on a beach(shore) in Italy. He was pretty much a pariah by the time he died.