Having one of the great masters hanging on your wall is a wonderful fantasy. In this painting I have drawn on Michelangelo Marisi da Caravaggio's original portrait of Antonio Martelli a senior member of The Knights of Malta painted in 1608. He (Caravaggio) was later murdered on the beach between Milan and Rome. This was believed to have been a hit ordered by a very influential member of the Order possibly as retribution for the artist's misdemeanors in Malta. So the weight of the Catholic religion hangs over him in this painting as a portent of doom. I have paid particular attention to the texture of the white silk of the cross and the wool of the tunic.
The facial texture and colour is achieved by first molding the features in burnt umber and then overpainting in washes of vermillion and highlights of yellow ochre, vermillion and flake white.
I realised I would never be able to own the Carravaggio original so I decided to create my own using the original techniques employed by Caravaggio with my own variations et Voila!