11 Feb-15 May. Among the initiatives organised for the fourth centenary of the death of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, the state archives display original documents covering the years that Caravaggio spent in Rome (1595/96-1606). Over 30 restored volumes reveal central episodes and news about the private life and artistic career of the great painter.

On display are original and unpublished documents, which testify to the arrival of Caravaggio in the capital at the age of 25 and not 20 as believed so far, and his lodging in Via della Scrofa at the shop of Lorenzo Carli, a Sicilian painter. These until-now unknown details centre on the intellectual, cultural and artistic environment frequented by Caravaggio in Rome, which throw new light on his life.

This survey, conducted by seven young art historians, isa sort of detective story in a succession of anecdotes, testimonials, reconstructions by registers, protocols, complaints, trials, topographic plans and tenancy contracts. From these documents emerges a unique period of Caravaggio