DNA tests have helped Italian researchers identify the remains of one of their country's greatest artists.

In the early 1600's, Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio was the most famous painter in Rome. Today his dramatic use of lighting and intensely emotional realism is seen as one of the formative influences on the Baroque school of painting, and works such as The Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road To Damascus are counted among the most significant masterpieces of European art.

Although it has long been known that Caravaggio died in Porto Ecole, a beach town on the Tuscan coast, in 1610 at the age of 39, mystery has always surrounded his last days and the final resiting place of his remains.

Now a team of researchers believe they have found the great painters bones just as Italy marks the 400th anniversary of his death, remembering the revolutionary artist who changed the history of modern painting.

The Associated Press reports that the team combed through archives of historical documents to discover the likely location of the artist's remains, then began a rigorous analysis of the bones found in a crypt in Porto Ecole. Using carbon dating and DNA tests, they singled out one specific set of fragments.

Carbon dating and biological analysis of the bones helped the researchers identify that the bones belonged to a man roughly of Carvaggio's reputedly "robust stature", who died between 38 and 40 years of age around 1610. Chemical analysis revealed that there were high levels of lead and other metals associated with painting as well.

DNA testing helped to narrow this picture down until the scientists could confidently claim an 85% probability of locating the correct remains. Although Carvaggio is believed to have had no direct descendants, the scientists used DNA tests on the remains to match them against a genetic combination in those whose last name was Merisi or Merisio - distant relatives of the artist.

"There can't be scientific certainty because when one works on ancient DNA, it is degraded," said anthropologist Giorgio Gruppioni. "But only in one set of bones did we find all the elements necessary for it to be Caravaggio."

The bones will now be transported to Caravaggio, the town named after the great artist, for the anniversary of his death before being returned to Porto Ecole for display.