Calling of Saint Matthew. Caravaggio. c. 1597- 1601 CE Oil on canvas.

• Function and Patronage
  • One of three paintings illustrating the life of Saint Mathew in a chapel dedicated to him by the Contarelli family
• Form
  • Diagonal shaft of light points directly to Saint Matthew, who points himself as if unsure that Christ would select him
  • Light coming in from two sources on the right creates a tenebroso effect on the figures
  • Christ’s pose is the inverse of Adam’s on the Sistine Chapel
  • Only a light suggestion of halo on Christ’s head indicates sanctity of the scene.
  • Foppishly dressed figures wear cutting-edge Baroque fashion
  • Figures placed on a shallow stage
  • Sensual figures, everyday people
  • Naturalist approach to the Baroque
• Context
  • Matthew was a tax collector; hence he is seated at a table with coins being counted.
  • Story taken from Matthew 9:9: “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.”
  • Two figures on the left are so concerned with counting the money they do not even notice Christ’s arrival; symbolically their inattention to Christ deprives them of the opportunity he offers: eternal life.
  • Jesuit influence on Counter-Reformation Baroque art; the sensual or physical expression of faith as expressed in Saint Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises