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There are men who remind us that the flow of history is neither unhurried nor measured. Caravaggio (1571–1610) was one of these, thanks to innovations that were so radical that they changed the course of Western painting. A notorious troublemaker, he was convicted of assassination but he never stopped painting, be it under the protection of liberal patrons or on the run from papal justice. The disparity between the suspended moments he captured on canvas and his wayward wanderings punctuated with actions suggests that his creative powers, despite the seminal nature of his work, never quite prevailed over the attraction to the abyss he staged right from his early production. His wandering increased in later years whilst he still engaged, sheltered by his canvas, in large religious compositions, exploring themes of despair and seeking divine absolution.