Francesco Maria del Monte

Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte took Caravaggio into his household around 1595 and turned a jobbing painter of fruit and boys into the most sought-after artist in Rome. He was a Venetian-born cleric raised at the court of Urbino, made cardinal in 1588, and served as the Medici grand duke's representative in Rome - a diplomat and a spender rather than a theologian, with rooms in the Palazzo Madama full of paintings, musical instruments, mathematical apparatus and alchemical equipment. His brother Guidobaldo was a mathematician who corresponded with Galileo, and del Monte was among those who pressed Galileo's case in Rome. He bought Caravaggio's early half-length pictures, gave him lodging, food and a stipend, and used his own standing with the Contarelli family to get him the commission for the Saint Matthew canvases in San Luigi dei Francesi - the first public work, and the one that made his reputation overnight. Several of the most famous early paintings, the Lute Player, the Musicians and the Bacchus among them, were made for his rooms and reflect his interests rather than the painter's. He kept protecting him through the brawls and the lawsuits until the killing of Ranuccio Tomassoni in 1606 put Caravaggio beyond protection. Del Monte lived another twenty years, narrowly failed to be elected pope in 1621, and left an inventory of over six hundred pictures. He served as protector of the Medici interest through three conclaves and was considered papabile in two of them. His inventory lists an alchemical laboratory and a distillery in the Casino Ludovisi, whose ceiling Caravaggio is thought to have painted for him in oils - the only mural attributed to him. The collection was dispersed at his death and much of it is untraced. He is buried in Rome.

• Lived: 1549 CE – 1627 CE
• Nationality: Italian
• Roles: religious, other