The Calling of St Matthew (Caravaggio)

The Calling of Saint Matthew is one of the most famous paintings Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It was built about 1599 or 1600 in the epoch of the early Baroque and is now considered one of the epoch-making works of art history. It was an ecclesiastical commission and is still located at the proposed site of the Cappella Contarelli in the Church of St. Louis of the French in Rome.

Order and other paintings

Was commissioned by the French cardinal Mathieu Cointrel, called in Italian Contarelli. Originally he had been commissioned in 1565 Girolamo Muziano, but has never worked, and after him. Giuseppe Cesari in 1591, the only completed the ceiling fresco and then not worked Well under the mediation of Caravaggio's patron, Cardinal Francesco Maria Bourbon Del Monte, Caravaggio was commissioned for the painting as well as two more for the Cappella Contarelli about 1597/1598.

As an altarpiece an illustration of the writer Matthew was appointed to the angels, as the right side painting a representation of the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and the left side of the painting The Calling of Saint Matthew. The painting with the writing of Matthew represents the evangelists Matthew, the other two the apostle Matthew. According to the then understanding Apostle and Evangelist were identical people, according to recent scientific findings are, however, two different people.

The altarpiece created first by Caravaggio was rejected by the authorities, was accepted only the second variant. Next paintings he made the call, after the martyrdom done.

Biblical basis

The Calling of Saint Matthew is the Gospel of Matthew, chap. 9, verse 9 ( 9.9 Mt EU) briefly described: As Jesus went on, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and said to him: Follow me! And he rose and followed him. Matthew was tax collector, one at the time of the plot shown despised profession, so that the call to the disciples of Jesus had to surprise even him all the more, as Caravaggio put it in the painting.

Representation

The type of display and lighting make the image into one of the most talked about Caravaggio.

Caravaggio informed the participants of the action into two groups: the two people on the right, the St. Matthew with a gesture professional end Jesus and Simon Peter, and the group left, the Matthew himself belongs to the questioning astonishment points a finger at himself, and his accompanying figures. In a more recent interpretation, however, the art historian Sara Magister sees the young man on the far left Matthew. The strangely feeble gesture, pointing to Matthew with Jesus, the gesture of Adam by Michelangelo is modeled. Although Jesus is actually the central character acting, but do not put him Caravaggio in the center of the image, but to increase the drama, to the right edge and left him semi- obscure nor of Simon Peter. The character Peter Caravaggio added only later a, as determined by an investigation. Reason for this could be that thus the meaning of the Petrine ministry of the popes should be emphasized since the Counter-Reformation was still significantly active in the period of creation.

Is epoch-making in the representation is that for the first time in the history of art a holy act does not take place in a sacred context or about in an ideal landscape, but in an everyday exchange. Caravaggio emphasizes the ordinariness through the dusty window at the top right and the presentation of the clothing of the people group to Matthew. It is normal street clothes at the turn of the 16th/17th. Century. The wall of the room is unlimed, the representation of space itself bare, so that the concentration of the viewer is not distracted by the gestures of the actors. Who, besides the three saints who are depicted people otherwise, is not known. Caravaggio is, however, known to him often people known to have mostly shown his Lombard compatriots in Rome.

The strike by the hard light from the top right to the extreme increase in light-dark effect, the chiaroscuro, had not shown before him in this drama. He had experimented with it, but not in this force. The fact that the light from the top right comes, is no coincidence. Caravaggio knew that the image would depend on the left side of the chapel, with a light window above the altar. The picture shows Caravaggio at the height of his powers, including the fine psychological analysis of the different behaviors of people in them unfamiliar situation belongs. While the young lad in the yellow- red robe in the center retreating and Matthew leaning respond, the front his face and his body turns interested to Jesus and Peter. Completely indifferent, however, to release the two figures in the left-hand side. The bottom simply counts the money on and has the sequence of events no interest, as well as the upper, older man while watching him through the spectacles.

Reception

The image was precisely because of the light guide and the relocation of a sacred act in a completely ordinary frame into one of the most famous Caravaggio. The following painter of the Roman school, or those who were also in Rome, such as Annibale Carracci and his brothers, Domenichino, Guido Reni and Guercino, took over in their works, both the representation of secular framework for sacred events as well as perfected by Carravaggio here technique of chiaroscuro.