Last week, the 'Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence' painting, which hangs in Rome's main Jesuit place of worship, the Church of the Gesu, was claimed to be the work of the famous Baroque master.

However, experts including Rosella Vodret, the superintendent of the Italian capital's museums, have come back with their own judgement - and it does not look good for those in the Caravaggio camp.

'The work is certainly not a Caravaggio, but it could be attributed to one of his followers from the Neapoltian school,' Vodret said.

This team of specialists have pointed to the less-than-masterly brushstrokes on the saint's hands and the poor depiction of the executioners watching him burn as reasons for their scepticism.

"It is not a Caravaggio, but it is still a very interesting painting," Mina Gregori, a professor emeritus of the University of Florence, told AFP.

However, she also added: "The contrasting light makes it a work of the Caravaggio school with total certainty."

This would mean that the real artist was a follower, or possibly even an actual pupil of Caravaggio's famous 'chiaro-scuro' technique - the heavily-accentuated contrast of shadow and light.

"It was always here hanging on a wall; we passed it hundreds of times without ever paying it any real attention," said Father Daniele Libanori, the church curator.

It was only when the canvas was cleaned that it occurred to Libanori that he might have something special on his hands.

Caravaggio is currently in the media spotlight of the art world as this year marks the fourth centenary of his mysterious death.

Caravaggio, real name Michelangelo Merisi, was born in 1571 in Milan, but much of his short and tortured career - the artist was a notorious street brawler and promiscuous homosexual - was tied to Rome where he initially won fame and the patronage of aristocrats and cardinals.

But after killing a man in one such fight, Caravaggio was forced to flee the city in 1606 and spent his last, restless years moving between Malta, Sicily and Naples.

He died in 1610, either at the hands of unknown assassins, or, as some other research suggests, of malaria on the Tuscan beach of Porto Ercole.

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