The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

Caravaggio's only signed painting. He wrote 'f. michelangelo' — Brother Michelangelo, his Knight of Malta title — in the pool of blood spreading from John's neck. The altarpiece was a gift to the Order of Malta, who had inducted him as a Knight partly to shelter him from a Roman murder charge. Within months he was expelled from the Order. The blood signature reads as confession and farewell. Now at St John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta @stjohnscocathedral