CARAVAGGIO, Polidoro Caldara da, a celebrated painter of frieze and other decorations in the Vatican, whose merits were such, that while a mere mortar-carrier to the artists engaged in that work, he attracted the admiration of Raffaele, then employed on his matchless pictures in the Loggia of that palace. Polidoro was born in 1495. His works, as well as those of his master Maturino, have mostly perished, but are well known by the fine etchings of San Bartoli, Alberti, &c. On the sack of Rome by the army of the Constable Bourbon in 1527, Polidoro fled to Naples. Thence he went to Messina, where he was much employed, and gained a considerable fortune, with which he was about to return to Italy, when he was robbed and murdered by his servants in 1548.