Caravaggio showed symptoms of the disease, then called painter’s colic or today it is simply referred to as lead poisoning. His ferocious personality and hostility are evident in his life and accounted for by authors in his biographies. With the mention of pragmatic reasons, author Graham-Dixon shrewdly ascribed his characteristics to the toxic quality of the materials painters worked with during the Baroque period.

The toxins include solvents, iron oxides, mercury, lead, and other sulfides that may have caused brain damage, dementia, and, therefore, his infamous violent behavior. His fugitive life starts with him killing a man named Ranuccio Tomassoni (a pimp or gangster) in a sword fight.

To save himself from the immediate consequences of his actions – Death; he fled Rome his beloved city where he would never step in again.