The celebratory coins – for the collector market rather than general circulation – comprise a €25 rectangular Vatican silver coin, with a coloured depiction of The Deposition of Christ, as well as a €20 Italian gold coin and €5 Italian silver coin displaying a casual portrait of Caravaggio and the main element from the painting Rest on the reverse side.
It marks the first time the Vatican City Mint has released a rectangular-shaped coin.
Michelangelo Merisi was born on September 29, 1571, in Caravaggio, a village near Milan that would eventually be used to identify him.
Caravaggio trained as an artist before moving in his 20s to Rome where he received a string of prestigious commissions.
Characterised by their dramatic, almost theatrical lighting and intense detail, Caravaggio’s paintings were sometimes controversial, popular, and hugely influential on succeeding generations of painters all over Europe.
Caravaggio is also remembered as a wild character with a fierce temper, who fled Rome after receiving a death sentence for killing a man in a brawl.
The artist died in 1610 in Porte Ercole, aged 38, in mysterious circumstances while on his way from Naples to Rome.
Reports stated that he died of a fever, but suggestions have been made that he was murdered or that he died of lead poisoning.
In tribute to the exceptional talent and brilliance of Caravaggio, his likeness was included on Italy’s last version of 100,00-lire banknotes, in use from 1994 to 2002.
