Hello everyone and welcome back to ArtHoles, the Art History Podcast with someone who is continually telling his family and friends not to worry that what I say on this show won't get me fired for my actual job.

My name is Michael Anthony and surprisingly I have not been fired yet.

I've updated the episode numbering and as you can see we are on the second to last episode of the Caravaggio series.

And this has been, I've got to be honest,

I think I've been spending way too much time

in the world of 1600's Italy.

I feel like I started to go a little cuckoo bananas maybe around episode 7 of the Pollack series, and I think that's happening now, and I could not be more thrilled about it.

I've come to accept that getting lost in these stories might make for a better experience for everyone,

even if it means I have to start having weird dreams about this stuff, which occasionally I do.

And this episode, this actually might be my favorite episode of the podcast so far.

Maybe favorites not the right word.

This one's going to be a lot.

So let's just do this. Everybody buckle up.

When we last left our story, Caravaggio, a Norio Longhe,

Razzio Gentileshi, and some poor schmuck named Felipeo

were rounded up and arrested by the Speery and charged with criminal libel with a potential life sentence in prison for writing two poems.

At this juncture, this tipping point in our story, through the fog of piece together history and weirdness,

we're now seeing sides, opposing sides being formed.

It's not the Farnese dynasty versus Medici or the Colones versus Aldo Brandini's. Those are the games of Kings and

Queens, Marqueses and Marquesas, and this isn't their story. It may be the world occurring

around the story, but this is the story of the pawns on the chessboard.

It's the story of people living in the artist's corridor struggling to survive and succeed and make

...