by Jon Lackman | 28 February 2007 | Baroque/Neoclassical
According to ADNKronosInternational, the Italian press is reporting that “Italy’s baroque painting genius Michelangelo Merisi might not have been born in the northern town of Caravaggio, the name by which he is universally known, but in Milan. The astounding discovery has reportedly just been made not by an art historian but by a pensioner, a former supermarket employee, who took up art history in his spare time and discovered Caravaggio’s baptism certificate at a church in Italy’s financial capital, the Chiesa di Santo Stefano in Brolo. Vittorio Pirami, who started following art history courses at the public university of Milan after retirement, told Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore he found the painter’s alleged baptism certificate – dating back to September 1571 – by accident.”
