“‘Whore, bitch, tart! I throw a bowl of shit in your face! Go on, fuck yourself with a horsewhip! I’ll stick the handle of my paintbrush up your arse!’ These are the words of an artist scorned, addressed to a courtesan who refused to sleep with him. They are preserved in a deposition in the State Archives of Rome for 1602.1 The man was before the magistrates for abuse and physical assault. As well as insulting and beating her, he had actually knifed the woman. She had been badly injured, cut deeply to the face. The facial wound was an example of a sfregio, a slash with the blade inflicted as a mark of shame – doubly damaging to a courtesan, whose face was her fortune. There are many such tales in the annals of the lives of the artists who thrived, floundered or failed in Counter-Reformation Rome. Here is another example. An artist catches his mistress in the company of his own younger brother, an assistant in his workshop. He pursues his brother to St Peter’s, where they are busy on a commission, and breaks two of his ribs with a crowbar. He then tries to kill him with his sword, but the brother escapes and seeks sanctuary in a church. Meanwhile, the artist sends his servant to the house of his offending mistress, with instructions to give her a sfregio. He finds her in bed and slashes her face with a razor.2 Graham-Dixon, Andrew. Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane (p. 61). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition. Graham-Dixon, Andrew. Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane (p. 61). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition. Graham-Dixon, Andrew. Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane (p. 61). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition. ”