Michelangelo Merisi, aka Caravaggio. Everybody knows him, right?
One of the best painter ever. The father of the Baroque current. His innovative style of realism and use of lighting made of him one of the artist most imitated in his time.
But, He wasn’t a nice person. He was rude to waiters. At least, he was rude to one waiter for sure.
One day, Caravaggio was in an inn in Rome. He asked for artichokes. When they were brought to him, he asked the waiter if these had been cooked using butter or olive oil.
The waiter replied: “You can find that out yourself. Smell them: the ones who smell like butter, were cooked with butter. If not, they were cooked with olive oil”
Caravaggio didn’t take the joke.
He threw the plate in the face of the poor waiter. Then he drew his sword and chased the boy around the room (probably wounding him in the calf).
So, Caravaggio wasn’t a nice person. He was an outstanding painter. But surely not a nice person (and this story is, believe me, one of the slightest proving this).
Making story short, either if you’re a world-class artist or not, be kind to the waiter.