1571 Born Michelangelo Merisi at Caravaggio, a small town close to Milan.
1577 Fermo Merisi, Michelangelo’s father, dies of plague.
1584 Apprenticed to the painter Simone Peterzano in Milan.
1592 Probably resident and working in Rome.
c1596–7 Joins the household of Cardinal del Monte.
1599 Caravaggio receives his first public commission to paint canvases for the Contarelli Chapel in Rome. One is rejected but the Calling of St Matthew and the Martyrdom of St Matthew are received well.
1603 Caravaggio is imprisoned and later placed under house arrest as a result of a libel action brought by a rival artist.
1606 A disputed bet on a game of tennis leads to a brawl during which Caravaggio stabs and kills another man. He is forced to leave Rome and eventually stays in Naples for some time.
1607 Travels to Malta where he is welcomed, made a Knight of the Order of St John and receives several commissions.
1608 After assaulting a senior member of the Order, Caravaggio is again imprisoned but escapes and flees to Sicily, pursued by agents of the Knights, dashing off paintings as he travels.
1609 Returns to Naples in the autumn where, in a fight outside a tavern, he is seriously wounded, probably by agents of the Knights of St John.
1610 Talk of a pardon from Rome induces him to sail north from Naples. At Porto Ercole after yet another arrest, he dies of fever in a tavern.
c1593 Boy with a Basket of Fruit, Rome, Galleria Borghese
c1594 Boy Bitten by a Lizard, London, National Gallery
1595 The Lute Player, St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
1596 Bacchus, Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi
c1596 The Cardsharps, Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum
1596–97 Rest on the Flight to Egypt, Rome, Galleriea Doria Pamphili
1597 The Fortune Teller, Paris, Musée du Louvre
c1598 Judith Beheading Holofernes, Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica
1599 Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Madrid, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
1599 Head of Medusa , Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi
1599–1600 The Martyrdom of St Matthew, Rome, Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo
c1599–1602 The Calling of St Matthew, Rome, Contarelli Chapel, S Luigi dei Francesi
c1600 The Conversion on the Road to Damascus, Rome, Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo
1601 Supper at Emmaus, London, National Gallery
1601 The Crucifixion of St Peter, Rome, Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo
c1602 Taking of Christ, Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland
1603 Amor Victorious, Berlin, Staatliche Museen
1603–04 The Entombment of Christ, Rome, Vatican Museums
1605 St Jerome in his Study , Rome, Galleria Borghese
1606 The Dormition of the Virgin, Paris, Musée du Louvre
1606 Madonna dei Palafrenieri, Rome, Galleria Borghese
1606–07 David with the Head of Goliath , Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
1606–07 Madonna of the Rosary, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
c1607 The Flagellation, Naples, Museo di Capodimonte
c1607 The Seven Acts of Mercy, Naples, Pio Monte della Misericordia
1608 Burial of St Lucy, Syracuse, Bellomo Museum
1608 Portrait of a Maltese Knight, Florence, Palazzo Pitti
1609 The Raising of Lazarus , Messina, Museo Regionale di Messina
1610 Salome Receives the Head of Saint John the Baptist, London, National Gallery