Caravaggio Script 32
Teaser images: Open with men going down in the crypt/the dark shots with the light searching for bones, interlace with Caravaggio paintings and science investigation.
10:00:20:
Comm: Here, among those ancient bones, might lie the answer to a 400 year old enigma. How did Caravaggio, one of the greatest painters of all time die?
10:00:33:
Helen Langdon: Fear hunted him from place to place.
10:00:37:
Comm. He vanished without a trace in July 1610. By then he had revolutionized painting but by regularly getting himself into trouble with the law, he had also become the first bad boy of the art world.
10:00:51: (9”)
Silvano Vinceti: He wanted to resume a normal life. He did not want to be on the run anymore.
10:01:00:33
Comm: Because he had killed a man, he ended his life on the run with a price on his head. But now a group of scientists and a maverick historian have teamed up to crack the mystery of his disappearance.
10:01:14 (10”)
Giorgio Gruppioni: I have to say that we went into this constantly doubting we would reach our goals.
10:01:25
Comm.: This unique team is scouring the records and annals of history and using all the weapons of their vast scientific arsenal, to find his body and come up with new evidence that may finally resolve the Caravaggio Affair.
10:01:39 Title THE CARAVAGGIO AFFAIR
Images Vinceti War Room…he is watching Caravaggio on a screen
10:01:46:
Comm: Resolving mysterious historical disappearances is one Historian Silvano Vinceti’s obsessions and Caravaggio’s own vanishing act is irresistible. He is the only great artist to have disappeared without a trace.
10:02:02: (8”)
ASTON: SILVANO VINCETI Historical Investigator
Silvano Vinceti: He was intuitive, passionate but also thoughtful and rational. He had the courage to dare when he found himself in difficulty
Images: drama Caravaggio paints in a studio
10:02:14:
Comm.: By the time he disappeared, the highly colourful and rambunctious Caravaggio had climbed to the top of the artistic ladder. He had become a celebrity and his rise through the ranks had challenged the artistic community and the papal establishment. He had reinvented religious painting by setting the action into contemporary Italy and his dramatic use of lighting changed art forever.
10:02:44 (12”)
Int Helen Langdon
ASTON: HELEN LANGDON art historian, author of “Caravaggio a Life”
Caravaggio’s life is like a classical tragedy you know that this sort of extraordinary impetus is somehow going to peter out and that tragic things are going to follow.
drama: Caravaggio painting and sword fighting
10:02:57:
Comm: Revered for his art and reviled for his personality, Caravaggio garnered as many admirers as he did adversaries.
10:03:08: (11”)
ASTON: MAURIZIO CALVESI art historian, University of La Sapienza
Int Calvezi: There is no doubt that Caravaggio had a volatile and passionate temper that made him violent.
10:03:22:
Comm: Despite his short career, his impact on art history is perhaps only rivalled by Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci.
images GV’s of porto Ercole Empty streets
10:03:33
Comm: Caravaggio was only 39 years old when he vanished, allegedly from Porto Ercole, a strategic seaside town on the Tuscan Coast then under Spanish occupation. But his death was never recorded in the Book of the Dead, the legal record of the time. Worse still, no body was ever produced to explain what happened to him making all serious investigation impossible. He simply disappeared.
Images Vinceti at his desk reading
10:04:05
Comm Since then the rumour mill has been grinding feverishly: Caravaggio had been murdered, died a pauper’s death in a back alley, or anonymously on a beach somewhere. In 2009, an article published in an Italian newspaper breathed new life into the speculation and sent a crack team of investigators on the trail of the remains of Caravaggio. If they could find them, they might be able to figure out how he died.
10:04:38: (17”)
Int Vinceti
This started like most important things in life, by accident. I was reading Corriere della Sera and I saw an interview of a certain Giovana Anastasia who claimed to have seen the mortal remains of Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio.
10:04:53: (10”)
Interview Anastasia
When they began the road works, they dug up a lot of graves. And among those graves, was the body of Michelangelo da Caravggio.
images Anastasia through Porto Ercole blends into Vinceti at desk.
10:05:05
Comm: In the article, Giovanna Anastasia now an archaeologist in Porto Ercole claimed that as a child, she had witnessed the discovery of bones covered by a coat bearing the cross of Malta during excavation works carried out in 1956 here in the heart of the town, where the old cemetery used to be. She also claimed that unbeknownst to the authorities, the priest at the time had moved those remains into the crypt of his church.
10:05:35
Comm.: Indeed, by the time that he died, Caravaggio was pretending to be a Knight of Malta. The trail looks promising and to assist him in this quest, Silvano Vinceti decides to enrol one of Italy’s leading Forensic Anthropologist, Professor Giorgio Gruppioni.
Images Vinceti at computer, clicks on Skype, Skype window appears.
10:05:54
Sot: Giorgio!
10:05:55: (26”)
Int grupioni
ASTON: GIORGIO GRUPPIONI Forensic anthropologist, Bologna University
After so many years,I thought it was impossible to even imagine that one could find the remains of Caravaggio. But Silvano was able to find the right words and share his enthusiasm. With great skill, he won me over to the idea of embarking on an investigation that had every chance of failing.
images GV’s Porto ErcVinceti and Grupioni walk towards church and meet Giovanna Anastasia
10:06:24:
Comm This is to be a team effort. Professor Gruppioni will lead the scientific investigation while Silvano Vinceti will take charge of the historical one. Like most inquiries, this one begins by interviewing the eyewitness.
10:06:41 (24”)
SOT Anastasia: I don’t know about all the bones, but those bones were collected by the parish priest and taken away…obviously in a box, and taken to the church of St Erasmus.
SOT Anatastasia: This Church. We need to get access to the parish archives and have a look at the events around the period of Caravaggio and have a look at the book of the dead.
SOT Anatastasia: The book of the dead and the book of burials.
images Gv’s church
10:07:09
Comm: But the priest refuses the team access to the archives and tells them there are no Caravaggio bones and no records of his death there.
10:07:21 (11”)
Int Vinceti”
Honestly, this was really disappointing because in other investigations, we were allowed to see the book of the dead and any other documents we needed to see.
Images GV church of St Erasmus
10:07:33
Comm: According to the priest Giovanna Anastasia is mistaken. In addition, he will have nothing to do with this investigation and refuses to be filmed.
10:07:47 (13”)
Int Gruppioni
That was the first big obstacle but it did not discourage us from trying other avenues to get results we wanted.
images Vinceti with local historians in Forto Fillipo
10:08:04:
Comm Undeterred, Silvano Vinceti calls on local historian Alessandro Ferrini and Gualtiero Della Monaca. They have their own idea as to where Caravaggio’s body might be. According to them the painter, with a bounty on his head, might have been apprehended by the Spanish forces occupying much of 17th century coastal Italy and taken to their Tuscan stronghold, Forto Filipo in Porto Ercole where he would have died and been buried.
10:08:35 (7”)
Sot: exchange between Ferrini and Vinceti.
This place is ideal to bury a person and make them disappear for ever.
images Geo radar team arrives, inspects the fort
10:08:43
Comm: Silvano Vinceti wants to investigate further but for that, he is going to need to see through stone.… A team of geologists is called in with a geo-radar. The machine will send electromagnetic radiation wave through the stone’s surface to detect buried objects, voids or… a body! But despite a thorough search of the former chapel inside the Fort, the georadar reveals no hidden crypt where bodies might have been buried.
Images: Vinceti in office in Rome
10:09:21
Comm: A dejected Silvano Vinceti returns to his Roman office and goes back to the drawing board.
images Vincetti in his office working on the blackboard.
10:09:29 (7”)
Int vinceti As always, we had to double check the source material, the documents and testimonies
10:09:39
Comm But soon enough a new trail emerges that takes the historian back to Porto Ercole. In fact, one of the diggers who excavated the town’s cemetery in 1956 has come forward. Vitaliano Bistazzoni remembers the discovery of really old bones:
images Vinceti on the beach with Bistazzoni
10:10:01
Bistazzoni, “While we were digging with a shovel and a pickaxe, bones kept coming to the surface. In the evening we brought them all to the Porto Ercole cemetery. We opened the trapdoor and threw them into the crypt. On piles of very old bones.”
images Ext cemetery guys are going down and the light reveals piles upon piles of bones
10:10:25
Comm In order to deal with all eventualities, Antonio Morretti, one of Italy’s leading geologists has come onboard. Now complete, the team wastes no time in verifying the latest lead. And sure enough, there are ancient bones in Porto Ercole’s new cemetery. Lots of them.
10:10:48 (7”)
Aston: PROFESSOR ANTONIO MORETTI geologist University of L’Aquila
Int Moretti When we came down the stair way we were overcome by despair. There was such a vast quantity of human remains
10:10:55 (7”)
Int Vinceti Such a large amount of remains made it very difficult to even think about examining them!
10:11:01 Int Gruppioni (3”)
I said to myself…we will never find him!
images The team in the crypt
10:11:11
Comm Identifying Caravaggio’s remains among all these bones is going to be like finding a needle in a haystack.
10:11:20 (7”)
Int Moretti We saw that in the various piles, some bones were covered with a distinctive sediment.
10:11:28 (14”)
INT GRUPIONI
Moretti had an idea of great genius. He said “let’s confront the soil residue that is on those bones to a sample of deep earth collected from the ground of the old cemetery”.
Images Vinceti with Historians in bar. Historians go to the archive.
10:11:41
Comm In order to establish exactly where those ancient bones might have been first buried, Silvano Vinceti needs local knowledge and calls again on Historians Della Monaca and Ferrini for help.
10:11:56
Comm They know exactly where to start to make sense of the gigantic puzzle. The regional archives located in Grossetto. Their search enables them to determine that between 1590 and 1627, non-residents in Porto Ercole were buried inside a small church which disappeared shortly after 1824.
Sot 10:12:22 (4”)Della Monaca,“This map dates back to 1824.”
Sot 10:12:27: (3”)Ferrini, “And this is San Sebastiano.”
10:12:31 (8”)
SOT Ferrini, “The small church of San Sebastiano was precisely here. This door might well be the old church’s door.”
10:12:39
SOT Vinceti to Gruppioni,
In 1629, the bishop at the time had the 48 bodies buried inside the San Sebastiano crypt moved into a 2 metre deep common plot dug right in front of the church.
10:12:52 Graphic begins
10:12:55
comm
The small San Sebastiano Church was located only a few meters from the sea. If Caravaggio did die in Porto Ercole in 1610, it is likely that his body would have been among those re-buried in that common plot, right in front of it. As the town grew so did its cemetery. It was the final destination of its residents until the beginning of the 19th century when the construction of new housing encroached on the graveyard and it was abandoned. In 1956 the expansion of town’s main road forced the relocation of the bodies. Now that the team know that this little garden is what is left of the old cemetery Professor Moretti is simply going to have to dig deep to see if the soil is the same one as the soil in the new crypt.
10:13:54 (6”)
Int Moretti
We took samples of earth at different levels until we reached the original sediment.
Images: Back to the crypt, Moretti and co gather earth.
10:14:02
Comm: The future of the investigation rests in the geologist’s hands.
10:14:10
ASTON: UNIVERSITY OF L’AQUILA
In his lab in L’Aquilla, Professor Moreti is going to try to figure out which bodies inside the Porto Ercole crypt should be analysed.
10:14:22:
Samples of earth taken from each of the piles of bones are compared to earth excavated 6.5 feet under the town’s old graveyard. One sample in particular reveals the presence of tiny fragments of seashells, sand and rounded quartz.
10:14:42 (12”)
Int Moretti This kind of sediment can only be found no further than 10 to 12 meters from the sea is at that moment. And this coincides with the Cemetery of San Sebastiano.
images Team back in the crypt packing up the bones blend into Gruppioni and team in the lab in Ravenna
ASTON: Porto Ercole
10:14:58
Comm The field of their investigation has been refined and the scientists can now exclude hundreds of candidates
10:15:09 (4”)
Gruppioni
We reduced the number substantially to slightly less than 20.
Over images of team with bones in Ravena
10:15:17:
ASTON: UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA, RAVENA CAMPUS
Comm.: This time, the team have not left Porto Ercole empty handed. They have brought back to their Lab in Ravena the remains of 19 individuals that will be sorted according to gender and height and good indicators of both are the femurs.
10:15:44 (14”)
Int Grupioni First of all, we eliminated the bones that belonged either to female individuals or individuals who were much younger or older than Caravaggio.
images of bones in the crypt blend into Vinceti in office with Gruppioni who is crossing stuff off on a board and circling “AGE?”.
10:15:57
Comm: Using those criteria has reduced the number of candidates to 9. But in order to establish which one might be Caravaggio, the team still has to sift through a wealth of forensic information.
10:16:15: (15”)
Int Gruppioni
ASTON: GIORGIO GRUPPIONI, Forensic anthropologist, Bologna University
We had 2 crucial objectives. One was to determine the age at death of these 9 individuals. The other was to determine the period in which they had died.
SPLIT SCREEN OF THE VARIOUS LAB IN ACTION
10:16:36
Comm.: Dating bone samples of the 9 individuals will enable the team to focus even further its field of investigation. 2 crucial tests are needed to try and find a man buried in the 17th century at the age of 39. First a test to establish how old were the owners of those bones when they died. Histology is the study of the microscopic anatomy of cells. Transparent slices of bone tissue reveal its structure…It is the number and shape of cells that form part of the cortical bone that are the age indicators. To allow for the regeneration of the bone, the body manufactures new round cells that digest the old ones. The ratio between old cells and new ones determines the age of a person.
ASTON: University of L’Aquila, Department of Environmental Sciences
Comm. And those samples cannot hide their secrets from Professor Mancinelli for long.
10:17:47 (10”)
I have probably good news for you…Let’s say 2 are compatible
10:17:55 (5”)
Int Grupioni
He did not say “This is Caravaggio”, but this boosted our hopes.
Images Lecce/testing how old the bones are.
10:18:02 ASTON: CEDAD-Center for Dating and Diagnostics, University of Salento
Comm.: In order not to contaminate their study or influence any of the results, Professor Gruppioni has chosen to do a blind protocol so the same 9 samples are tested to see how long ago they were buried…and for that, there’s carbon dating.
10:18:19 (8”)
Female doctor, “Maria, the external sediment has been removed from this bone fragment. Will you please, check if it is clean?
Images carbon dating in lab/Graphic
10:18:27
Comm One very specific isotope, Carbon 14 is key to discovering how old something is.
graphic
10:18:41
Comm. Formed in the stratosphere Carbon 14 is a radioactive isotope that reaches the Earth's surface in the form of carbon dioxide. There it is absorbed by living creatures and settles in their tissues. The process only stops with death. The carbon then begins to loose its radioactive charge. And to get at it, crushed bone fragments have to be subjected to a complicated process that will reduce them to a few milligrams of graphite powder.
10:19:18
Comm: It contains billions of molecules of carbon isotopes but only some, the carbon 14, will still be radioactive. Compressing the powder in cartridges will yield the residual radioactivity and determine the date of death.
Images Professor Calcagnile walking into his office
10:19:37 ( 4”)
sot
ASTON PROFESSOR LUCIO CALCAGNILE, CEDAD
“These are preliminary results, but there seems to be…”
10:19:42 (15”)
Int Gruppioni:
He started telling me the age of all the samples…and finally, he told me that one sample, sample No 5, was fully compatible with the period in which Caravaggio died…
Images of labs
10:19:57
Comm: Sample no 5 looks very promising indeed. It belonged to a man who died at the age of 40 and was buried in the early 17th century. Just like Caravaggio. But another layer of proof is needed. The team now needs to find lead.
Images drama Caravaggio painting
10:20:20
Comm Until the 20th century, paints contained highly toxic heavy metals, notably lead and mercury. Painters even primed their canvases with white lead. All of which would have caused lead contamination, especially in the case of a prolific painter like Caravaggio. All of which might also explain why he was such a frequent visitor in the dock of Rome’s tribunals that he might as well have had an assigned seat.
10:20:51 (35”) (note to dubbing Each sentence is self contained)
Int Langdon
ASTONS HELEN LANGDON art historian, author of “Caravaggio a Life”
Caravaggio all the way through his career in Rome is involved in street fighting. In 1598 he gets picked up in Piazza Navona for carrying a sword and compasses. in 1604 he shamefully attacks a young painter from behind. In 1605 C gets involved in attacking the house of two women, in the same year he gets involved in stabbing in the back a notary - there are all sorts of minor events, he gets thrown into prison for swearing, he gets thrown into prison for throwing stones. He seems also to have a taste for attacking people from behind which is quite shameful really.
Drama Caravaggio gets thrown in Jail again and again
10:21:43
Comm: Historical records for their part show that Caravaggio was arrested or investigated at least 9 times. But the reasons for this erratic and aggressive behaviour may have a lot more to do with his health than his psychology. For Italy’s leading forensic biologist, there is a clear correlation between Caravaggio’s behaviour and the symptoms of heavy metal poisoning.
Images: Office Gruppioni, Garofalo and Girl
10:22:16 (12”)
ASTON: GENERAL LUCIANO GAROFANO Forensic biologist
Int Garofalo. What are the symptoms? Dizziness, insomnia, headache, extreme irritability, even seizures, which can progressively undermine the nervous system.
Girl Sot10:22:58:41 (5”)
Sot: The pigments that were being used for painting contained a high level of lead.
Drama Caravaggio painting David and Goliath
10:22:37:41
Comm: It is nearly impossible to estimate how much heavy metal Caravaggio ingested in his life but records show that he produced around 100 paintings in less than 18 years. A self-portrait could suggest that Caravaggio suffered from heavy metal poisoning. His skin has a leaden hue, and the blue line along the gums of his teeth are some of the indicators of lead poisoning.
10:23:10 (14”)
Int Garofano
Especially in his David and Goliath I see symptoms because lead is absorbed in the mineral tissues, so in the bones and in the teeth.
Images Lab and scientists looking at computer screens
10:23:27
Comm: And news from the CRSA Med Lab Marina di Ravenna lifts the entire team’s spirits.
10:23:35 (7”)
Sot We have determined the levels of lead and look, the ratio is about 20mg/kg.
10:23:41
Comm.: Testing has revealed that the heavy metal levels in sample no 5 are between 3 and 4 times higher than the other samples. An unusually high level for normal people but not for pre 20th century painters as evidenced by recent studies that have suggested that both Van Gogh and Goya suffered from lead poisoning.
10:24:08 (13”)
Int Garofano
He could have been contaminated through his skin, or through inhalation, or even through what he ate. Caravaggio ate directly off the back of his canvases, and this explains this significant amount of lead.
Images drama Caravaggio Painting and eating blends into art auction
10:24:22
Comm:. But Caravaggio’s prolific output may have however done a lot more than play with his mind and health…for a new phenomena was sweeping Rome: Collecting.
10:24:37 (18”)
ASTON: FRANCESCA CAPPELLETTI art historian, University of Ferrara
Interview Capelleti At the beginning of 17th century, Rome was consumed by a passion for collecting antiques and works of art. People spent their time collecting paintings and covering the walls of their palaces with them.
Images Caravaggio paintings in Galleria Borghese blend into Vinceti is calculating the amount of money earned by Caravaggio..
10:24:57
Comm.: Owning a Caravaggio became a must for the upper classes of Rome. Indeed, when he first arrived, Caravaggio was selling his paintings for 5 – 8 scudi. When he became a sought after painter, their value rose to 150 Scudi. By the time he died, Caravaggio’s paintings were selling for 400 scudi and more. The equivalent of what 6 noble households would spend in one year to keep a very large house with servants! When Caravaggio disappeared, he was travelling with a stash of paintings that were worth a fortune.
drama Caravaggio in tavern sees a woman who looks like the one from the death of the Virgin
10:25:48 Comm.: By then, he had also made himself rather unpopular and upset some very powerful people.
10:26:00 (14”)
Int Helen Langdon He has some trouble coping with this success and goes around Rome showing off the entire time showing off how famous and celebrated he now is. So he’s not entirely good at handling success,
10:26:15
Comm: When he received one of the ultimate accolades in Rome, a slew of commissions for altar pieces, Caravaggio seemed hell bent on self-destruction.
Sot 10:26:31 Caravaggio: Don’t touch her
Sot 10:26:38 Caravaggio: Put your arm like this
Comm. 10:26:41 He used as models the dregs of humanity, the poor and prostitutes.
Sot 10:26:46: Caravaggio: Come here
10:26:47
Comm.
He presented them as Saints…. The church authorities were scandalized. He had gone too far. One of his most famous paintings, The Death of the Virgin caused an uproar.
Sot 10:27:03: Caravaggio: Cry, cry, the virgin has died.
10:27:16 (31”)
Int Helen Langdon he seems to have used as a model a prostitute whom he knew well but high churchmen do make a point of saying no painter is to use a prostitute as a model and I think they didn’t like this, they went into the church and recognized this well-known courtesan representing the Virgin Mary. So this didn’t go down at all well. But I think above all, the painting was just so novel, when you see it now, it still knocks you out
Images painting of Madonna and Child with St. Anne
10:27:59
Comm Another rejected painting draws further into Caravaggio’s life a man who one day would have the power of life or death over the painter.
10:28:10 (17”)
ASTON MAURIZIO CALVESI Art historian, University La Sapienza, Rome
Int Calvezi who rushes to buy that painting? Scipione Borghese, the nephew of the Pope. He is the very powerful head of the judicial system and it is he who hands out sentences.
Images Portrait Borghese and gv’s of the collection
10:28:27
Comm.: The Papal Secretary of State Scipione Borghese became a big fan of Caravaggio and had the means to satisfy his appetite. His huge stipend of 200,000 scudi a year allowed him to fill his Palace in Rome with art.
10:28:46 (11”)
Int Helen Langdon: he was an inspired collector, he was rapacious and he’s also completely ruthless, and uses dreadful methods for building up his collection.
10:28:59
Comm: One of Rome’s most assiduous painter and collector would painfully find out that Scipione Borghese’s greed for Caravaggio’s work was insatiable.
10:29:10 (24”)
Int Calvezi
Who sentenced the Cavaliere d’Arpino to death? Scipione Borghese did…And right after passing the sentence, he told him that he would pardon him in exchange for all his paintings. Arpino did not have a cent so ….this shows that this Scipione Borghese was a bit of a scoundrel…
Drama Caravaggio fighting a duel
10:29:40
Comm.: After the successive rejections of his work Caravaggio’s behaviour became more and more erratic and violent.
10:29:59
Comm: On Sunday 28 May 1606, blood replaced paint on Caravaggio’s hands. He had killed a man.
10:30:11
Comm: The Papal authorities lost patience with the troublesome painter and imposed on him the heaviest sentence of all: Death.
10:30:20 (15”)
Int Helen Langdon A bando capitale is a condemnation to death, but it means that whoever meets you, or runs into you, or is in a position to take you prisoner, can put you to death and send your head to Rome, so it’s a terrible punishment.
Drama Caravaggio packing
10:30:39
Comm Caravaggio went on the run to escape the long arm of the papal justice and it was to be the start of a 4 year exile that would end in his death.
10:30:49 (6”)
Int Helen Langdon I mean for the rest of his life Caravaggio to some extent lives in fear.
Drama Caravaggio packing
10:30:59
Comm.: 400 years later and it is a team of scientists and historians who have may have caught up with him. But now they need to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. Now they need DNA.
Images ext university blends into Dr Cilli and Colleagues at work
ASTON: Paleo DNA laboratory University of Bologna, Ravenna Campus
10:31:15
Comm But extracting useable genetic material from 400 years old bone is no easy feat, even for one of the most advanced DNA laboratories in Europe.
10:31:27 (21”)
ASTON: ELISABETA CILLI Geneticist, University of Bologna, Ravenna Campus
Int Cilli It was awful when I did not find DNA on the bones. There was a lot of pressure on me and I had to solve this problem alone. To tell you the truth, I did not sleep that night. It felt like we had reached a dead end.
images Cilli cutting into the bone
10:31:50
Comm.: The irony is that in order for the team to prove that they have found Caravaggio, they often have to destroy what is left of him. But Dr Cilli is almost out of options. If she does not succeed, the investigation will end.
10:32:06 (9”)
SOT
Cilli, “Did you smell that strong scent?”
Cilli, “It means that there is organic matter, and if there is organic matter, there could be DNA.”
10:32:16
Comm: After weeks of fruitless attempts, the scientist can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
10:32:26 (14”)
Int Cilli I was overwhelmed with emotion when DNA markers started appearing on the gel. I immediately picked up the phone and called Professor Gruppioni. We had succeeded.
Images Cilli walking down the street in Caravaggio
10:32:41 Comm.: But now that she has her DNA, Dr Cilli needs something to compare it to.
10:32:50 (25”)
Int Dr Cilli
We went to the archives in the town of Caravaggio to reconstruct the family history. He had 2 brothers. One was a priest and the other one died when he was 10 to 12 years old and therefore of no use.
Images Vinceti and Grupioni in Caravaggio graveyard
10:33:12
ASTON: City of Caravaggio, Bergamo
Comm: But Silvano Vinceti and Professor Gruppioni have managed to locate in Caravaggio’s hometown town what they think is the tomb of the painter’s brother, the priest.
10:33:25
Comm: If they can excavate it, they will be able to prove that they are dealing with the painter by using traditional DNA typing.
10:33:37
Comm. But luck is not on their side.
Images Cilli in Caravaggio Archives
10:33:53
Comm To exhaust all mitochondrial DNA possibilities, Dr Cilli has to go back on the hunt for Caravaggio’s relatives. His sister did have children….
10:34:05 (26”)
Dr Cilli: We had to follow the trail of his sister, Caterina Merisi. So we were able to establish who were her descendants until 1750 when her line vanishes. I can’t tell you how disappointed we were after having spent so much time and labour, scouring the archives!
Images Vinceti, Gruppioni and Chili in office.
10:34:36
Comm
The mitochondrial DNA trail has gone cold
10:34:41 (9”)
SOT Gruppioni
As you know, we were unable to find neither the remains of Caravaggio’s brother nor any descendents whose DNA we could sample.
10:34:51:
Comm: But after having accomplished so much, the team is unwilling to give up. There is an alternative way to prove that they are dealing with the illustrious artist. Although he is known as Caravaggio after the town from which he came, the painter’s real last was name, Merisi…and therein may lie a clue. All the investigators need is directory enquiry.
10:35:19 (20”)
Int Cilli
Our last hope was to analyse all those who had the Merisi last name to try and see what DNA they shared. We were very lucky because this last name in Italy is only found in the regions of Milano and Bergamo. So we felt that whoever bore that name might have a common ancestor.
10:35:51
Graphic
Comm.: And this is because part of the Y chromosome which determines the sex of the unborn child does not recombine using half the maternal genes and half of the paternal ones. On the contrary, it is passed down intact from father to son…thus men who have the same surname are likely to share an ancestor. If the team can find enough similarities between the y chromosones of their Merisi test group and sample No 5, they will be able to prove that they are related and that they have found Caravaggio.
Images Ext people gathering in Caravaggio to have their DNA sampled blend into int of town hall
10:36:31
SOT: We are going to sample cells from inside your cheek.
10:36:35
Comm: These men, literally found in the phone book of the region of Caravaggio, may hold the key to finding its namesake
Vinceti on Train to Naples
10:37:09
Comm: Back in 1606, others were already looking for Caravaggio to have him answer for the blood he had on his hands. To avoid having his head cut off he had escaped the Papal States for the relative safety of Spanish controlled Naples. He became the toast of the town and for Silvano Vinceti, this partly might explain his disappearance
10:37:33 (10”)
ASTON: HELEN LANGDON Art Historian, Author of “Caravaggio, a life”
Int Langdon he’s a celebrity painter the minute he gets to Naples and Caravaggio immediately gets a string of quite important commissions.
10:37:48
ASTON: Naples, Pio Monte della Misericordia
Comm:. One commission in particular attracts the attention of the well to do Naples society.
10:38:01 (15”)
ASTON: VINCENZO PACELLI art Historian University of Federico II of Naples
Sot Pacelli
This is the famous painting of the 7 acts of Mercy. It is really the painting of the Caravaggio revolution and it has influenced all 17th century Neapolitan painting.
Images Decapitation paintings
10:38:15
Comm: Another fan joins the rank of Caravaggio’s admirers: the viceroy of Naples, the most powerful man in Italy after the pope. But despite his growing success, Caravaggio seemed haunted by the idea of loosing his head. Over the next 4 years, he painted 5 beheadings:
10:38:41 (8”)
ASTON MAURIZIO CALVESI Art historian, University La Sapienza, Rome
Int Calvezi These are in fact expressions of foreboding, of the fear of death that haunted him.
Images map graphic
10:38:50
Comm: More than fame and fortune, Caravaggio wanted a pardon. He went looking for it with the Knights of Malta but got again into a fight and had to escape to Sicily. He was now wanted by a lot of people.
10:39:10 (2”)
Int Helen Langdon Fear hunted him from place to place.
Images Sicilian Paintings
10:39:15
Comm: Yet Caravaggio was again deluged by commissions. In the course of 9 months, he painted no less than 4 large altar pieces. And his workload increased when he resumed his petition for a pardon. His most passionate collector, Scipione Borghese was more powerful than ever.
10:39:35 (13”)
Int Langdon
If he wants a pardon Borghese is the person to whom he would go, I think it’s almost certain that he was trying to tempt the cardinal with paintings to give him a pardon, to let him back to Rome.
Images drama Caravaggio going mad
10:39:52
Comm: But while Caravaggio was trying to paint his way out of trouble, he might also have been painting his way into an early grave. In fact, contemporary records show that he was becoming quite unstable which might indicate that the heavy metals in his paints were wrecking havoc with his mind.
10:40:12(11”)
Calvezi: the sources of the time say that he seemed unbalanced. This tells us that he was deeply stressed and more and more engulfed by thoughts of impending death.
10:40:25 (25”)
Int Garofano
ASTON: GENERAL LUCIANO GAROFANO Forensic Biologist
We know that in the second phase of his career, he was more popular than ever and very productive. With time, the contamination might have increased exponentially. I also do not exclude that the poisoning could have been enhanced by the interaction with other metals.
images W/s Naples blends into Caravaggio being attacked blend into his bloody face and he is holding a rag against it. He looks at himself in the mirror whilst the rag becomes bloodier
10:40:53
Comm. Lured by the prospect of a pardon, Caravaggio headed back to Naples in October 1609. What he found was more trouble. Shortly after he arrived, he was ambushed as he left a dodgy tavern. No one knows for sure who attacked him. The Knights of Malta might have wanted revenge…or this might have been a botched attempt at executing his death sentence by chopping off his head. But all agree, Caravaggio was seriously wounded.
10:41:37 (26”)
Int Garofano
There were no disinfectants, there were no antibiotics, and this wound would have had serious repercussions. Here we have an attack on the central nervous system compounded by a weakened immune system, in short he was defenceless against the most banal diseases.
Images: Caravaggio packing David and Goliath
10:42:15
Comm Some historians believe that the lack of paintings produced during Caravaggio’s convalescence reveal that he was in bad shape and the records do suggest that the normally prolific painter only delivers 2 paintings in the 7 months that followed the attack
10:42:39
Comm. Carbon dating, histology and the presence of lead are all suggesting that the bones these scientists have uncovered in Porto Ercole might be those of a painter. But are they Caravaggio’s?
10:42:53 (18”)
Int Cilli
ASTON: DR ELISABETA CILLI, Geneticist, University of Bologna, Ravenna Campus
We started the comparison but the DNA that we extracted from the bones is really degraded and we have only been able to study 5 out of the 17 regions of the chromosome that we intended to analyse.
10:43:12
Comm: Now the outcome of investigation depends on the geneticist who continues trying to make sure that those are the remains of Caravaggio.
10:43:22 (11”)
Int Chilli
We found that the first 5 regions were compatible with the Merisi gene pool. But that was not enough for us.
Images Vinceti on Beach blends into Re-enactment Caravaggio walking down a corridor blends into Caravaggio being dragged.
10:43:36
Comm While Dr Cilli looks for more corroboration Silvano Vinceti picks up Caravaggio’s trail.
10:43:50
Comm. In the summer of 1610, Caravaggio’s patron and Head of the Papal Justice, Scipione Borghese came through with promise of a pardon. The painter was still apparently recovering from his attack only months before but wasted no time heading back to Rome with a stash of paintings to win back his rightful place. What should just have been another journey became Caravaggio’s final one when he stopped in Palo, a harbour near Rome.
10:44:29 (26”)
Interview Calvesi
ASTON: MAURIZIO CALVESI, Art Historian University of La Sapienza
The guards there arrested him because they said “but this is a man who has been sentenced to death”. They did not know that he had been pardoned. They kept him in prison for 2 or 3 days and then released him but his boat had left and inside there were the paintings that he was giving to Cardinal Borghese and that were the condition of his pardon.
Image Vinceti on beach in Palo
10:44:57
Comm: And this is where the trail ends. The last contemporary reports suggest that Caravaggio embarked on a terrible race to catch up with the boat that carried his ticket to freedom. There are no further records of his whereabouts until his death is announced on 28 July 1610. Even then, confusion ruled. And because of that many have since argued that Caravaggio had been murdered or even that he had not died in Porto Ercole.
Images vinceti and Pacelli looking through ancient records in Naples Archive.
10:45:32
Comm The absence of any legal records of Caravaggio’s death is what Silvano Vinceti finds troubling especially since he was then one of the most wanted man in Italy. But Vincenzo Pacelli, one of Caravaggio’s biographer, thinks he has an explanation. In the form of a letter sent by the Spanish Viceroy of Naples and once found in the town’s state archives.
10:45:58
Sot Pacelli: I have been informed that the painter…
Text on screen and the actor’s voice begins:
10:46:08 I have been informed that the painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio has died at Porto Ercole and that you have in your possession all his property. I charge you as soon as you receive this letter to return the aforesaid property by the first felluca available and especially the painting of St John the Baptist
image Naples Archives blends into Vinceti in office in Rome
10:46:29
Comm: For Silvano Vinceti, the greed of the Spanish occupiers is at the root of the controversy that has surrounded Caravaggio’s disappearance:
10:46:39 (32”)
Int Vinceti :
ASTON: SILVANO VINCETI Historian
The Spanish wanted Caravaggio’s paintings. Once his death was recorded in the book of the dead, his inheritance could be claimed. They tried to conceal Caravaggio’s death or at least conceal the proof of his death so that they could have the time to take possession of the 3 paintings that Caravaggio was carrying with him on the trip that ended in Porto Ercole.
Images Caravaggio drama.
10:47:12
Comm Indeed, an unholy row broke out after Caravaggio’s death. The Knights of Malta decided to reclaim him as one of their own possibly in order to get hold of his paintings. Whilst Cardinal Scipione Borghese considered himself their rightful owner since they were the price of Caravaggio’s pardon. The Viceroy of Naples held on to one of the paintings for over year before accepting to return it to the Prelate. The other 2 disappeared.
images: GV’s porto Ercole
10:47:51
Comm. But the truth behind the absence of records might be more pedestrian: the priest of the time was in jail himself when Caravaggio died and therefore unavailable to record his death. That is, if the painter really died in Porto Ercole. And the answer to that is in what is left of the bones that have been subjected to an amazing battery of tests.
10:48:17 (15”)
Int Cilli
We have refined the technique and changed some of the conditions of the test and slowly we reached 6 then 7 and then slowly slowly we reached 11 markers.
10:48:33 (14”)
Int Prof Gruppioni
We found that 11 of the 17 markers are compatible and this of course increases the possibility that those remains are Caravaggio’s.
10:48:48(5”)
Int Cilli
it is highly probable that we have found Caravaggio.
10:48:54
Int Vinceti (15”)
Historiography can only formulate hypotheses based on historical records. But our case is supported by science, forensic anthropology and genetics. I feel certain that these bones can only be Caravaggio’s.
Images the murder wall blends into Vinceti leaving his office.
10:49:22
Comm.: It is the amalgamation of their findings that has instilled the team with conviction that they have found the remains of Caravaggio: After all, how many painters in their late thirties buried in the early 17th century who came from the region of Caravaggio could there really be in Porto Ercole?
Images Boat sailing on med/people drinking champagne /intercut with flashback of the investigation
10:49:48
Comm: This investigation has taken these men and women all over Italy and back in time. Today is a celebration of their effort. Caravaggio is being returned to Porto Ercole.
10:50:03 (7”)
Int Gruppioni–
It is clear that we could not have produced those results with only one set of skills, but we had to use the whole spectrum
10:50:11
Comm The evidence also suggested how Caravaggio might have died.
10:50:16 (16”)
Int Garofano
ASTON: GENERAL LUCIANO GAROFANO Forensic Biologist
I would say that the lead made him gradually embrace death, but I do not rule out that the resulting progressive weakening of his immune system might have turned a simple thing like a wound into the cause of death.
10:50:32
Comm: This is the cold case of a lifetime and the team now believes the heavy metals in Caravaggio’s paints could have slowly poisoned him.
10:50:42 (7”)
Int Cilli
This was madness but incredibly satisfying and rewarding!
10:50:50
Comm: But the team’s work is not finished yet. They will continue sifting through the bones of the crypt to identify all of Caravaggio’s remains.
10:50:59 (9”)
Gruppioni
The skeleton is an archive, a biological archive which contains the memory of every event that happened in the course of that person’s life.
Images drama Caravaggio walking away with a torch.
10:51:22
Comm: And then perhaps one day, these bone hunters will rebury Caravaggio in his own grave this time and with the honours that a man who died for his art deserves.