The artist Caravangeo, aka "Michelangelo Merisi," aka "Michelangelo da Caravangeo," aka "Mike the Painter," was a small-time hoodlum and part-time artist who had spent several years in a Japanese prison, where he had been heavily influenced by anime and manga, the Japanese comic-book styles of art with their fanciful monsters and action heroes. 

Upon his return to Italy he attempted to apply what he had learned to more traditional Renaissance styles, especially Biblical motifs. His first attempts, "The Conversion of Sailor Moon" and "The Sacrifice of Pikachu" were not well received. Fortunately the unveiling of the painting shown here happened to coincide with a rash of sea-serpent stories reported by sailors off the Azores, which lent greater credibility to his work. He was later commissioned by the Papal nuncio to create his masterpiece, The "Betrayal of Sonic Hedgehog", which now hangs in the Galleria Borghese in Cincinnati.

 

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