Caravaggio painting The Raising of Lazarus restored to its former glory

Caravaggio – famed for his rowdy behaviour – painted the masterpiece in 1609 and it was one of his last works before he died after living a wild life – partly on the run after murdering a rival in a tennis match.

The biblical painting is a vivid example of the artist’s dramatic use of lighting in what has become known as his chiarosciuro (clear dark) style.

Experts painstakingly restored the painting over seven months in a workshop in the Superior Central Institute of Restoration, in Rome, at a cost of more than £90,000. The painting is thought to be worth at least £10 million.

The picture is in Caravaggio’s dark and moody trademark brushstrokes, with striking images of the characters set against a pitch black backdrop.

Wealthy Genoese merchant Giovan Battista de’ Lazzari commissioned the work for his chapel in the church of the Crocifieri in Messina on the Italian island of Sicily and he was paid 1,000 scudi – double what he had been paid for previous works.

It took Caravaggio, whose real name was Michelangelo Merisi, just a few weeks to complete and as such it is noted as being one of his most rushed and hurried works.

Legend has it that he based the body of Lazarus on a real corpse that he had exhumed from graveyard in Sicily, where he had fled from Malta after being involved in a brawl with a knight.

He had been living in Malta for three years, since arriving in 1606, after he was forced to escape from Rome following a fight at the end of a tennis match in which he fatally stabbed his opponent. Since arriving in Rome from his native Caravaggio, near Milan, his life had been peppered with a catalogue of brawls and sword fights – although he received numerous commissions for his works.

There were noted incidents in many of Rome’s restaurants and he is also said to have vandalised his own apartment, when he fled the city following the brawl. Pope Paul V signed his death warrant.