Focus on Death of the Virgin (Caravaggio) and analyze the History.
When he painted The Death of the Virgin (c. 1601–06), Caravaggio had been working in Rome for fifteen years. The painting was commissioned by Laerzio Cherubini, a papal lawyer, for his chapel in the Carmelite church of Santa Maria della Scala in Trastevere, Rome; the painting could not have been finished before 1605–06.  The depiction of the Death of the Virgin caused a contemporary stir, and was rejected as unfit by the parish.
Giulio Mancini thought Caravaggio modelled a prostitute, possibly his mistress, as the Virgin. Giovanni Baglione and Gian Pietro Bellori attributed the rejection to the appearance of the Virgin. The breach of decorum led to a rejection of the painting by the fathers of Santa Maria della Scala and its replacement by a picture by Carlo Saraceni, a close follower of Caravaggio.Upon the recommendation by Peter Paul Rubens, who praised it as one of Caravaggio's best works, the painting was bought by Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. Giovanni Magni, the duke's ambassador, briefly exhibited the painting in his house on the Via del Corso, between 1 and 7 April 1607. Copying was absolutely forbidden.The duke's collection was sold to Charles I of England in 1627.  After his execution the English Commonwealth put his collection up for sale in 1649, and the painting was bought by Everhard Jabach, who in 1671 sold it to Louis XIV for the French Royal Collection, which after the French Revolution became the property of the state. Today it hangs in the Louvre. Prior to leaving Rome, it was shown at the Academy of Painters for under two weeks. However, Caravaggio had fled Rome by then, never to publicly return. (During one of his frequent brawls in Rome, the mercurial and impulsive Caravaggio had killed a man, Ranuccio Tomassoni, in a sword fight following a tennis game.)
Duke of Mantua Laerzio Cherubini Vincenzo Gonzaga sword Peter Paul Rubens Santa Maria della Scala Academy of Painters Giulio Mancini Louis XIV Everhard Jabach Rome Caravaggio Carlo Saraceni Giovanni Baglione Via del Corso Trastevere Louvre Gian Pietro Bellori tennis Charles I of England English Commonwealth Death of the Virgin