The Calling of Saint Matthew

The Work

The Calling of Saint Matthew is an oil painting on canvas measuring 322 cm by 340 cm, located in the Contarelli Chapel (Cappella Contarelli) in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, Italy. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio painted it between 1599 and 1600. The painting hangs on the left wall of the chapel, opposite Caravaggio's Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, with an altarpiece of Saint Matthew and the Angel (Caravaggio's second version, the first having been rejected) on the back wall. The chapel is accessible to the public free of charge; a coin-operated light illuminates the paintings for a brief viewing period.

The scene depicts a dim, nondescript room - identifiable as a Roman tavern or tax office - in which five men sit around a table counting coins. From the right edge of the canvas, two figures enter: Christ, partially obscured behind a companion identified as Saint Peter, extends his right arm toward the seated group. A strong shaft of light enters from the upper right, following the direction of Christ's gesture and cutting diagonally across the composition.

Biblical Source

The painting illustrates 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." The parallel account in Luke 5:27-28 names the tax collector Levi. The Greek word akolouthei (ἀκολούθει, "follow me") is a present imperative, indicating not a one-time command but an ongoing call to discipleship.

The light that enters from the right functions as a visual metaphor for John 1:5: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." This Johannine theology of light pervades the composition: Christ brings light into a dark room, just as the incarnate Word brings light into a fallen world. John 8:12 deepens the connection: "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

Artist & Commission

The Contarelli Chapel had been endowed by Cardinal Matteo Contarelli (Matthieu Cointrel), a French clergyman, who died in 1585 leaving funds for its decoration with scenes from the life of his patron saint, Matthew. After decades of delays and failed commissions to other artists (including the Cavaliere d'Arpino, in whose workshop the young Caravaggio had briefly worked), the commission was awarded to Caravaggio in 1599, largely through the patronage of Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte.

Caravaggio was twenty-eight years old and had no experience with large-scale public commissions, having painted primarily still lifes, genre scenes, and devotional half-figures for private patrons. The Contarelli commission was his breakthrough, the moment that transformed him from an obscure young painter into the most controversial and influential artist in Rome. He completed the two lateral canvases (the Calling and the Martyrdom) within approximately a year.

Iconography & Composition

The painting's most discussed feature is the ambiguity of Christ's gesture. His right hand points toward the group at the table, but exactly which figure he indicates is deliberately unclear. The bearded man at the center of the table, who points at himself (or possibly at the young man with the bowed head beside him), has traditionally been identified as Matthew. However, some scholars have argued that the true Matthew is the younger figure at the end of the table who remains absorbed in counting coins, his face still in shadow - not yet aware that he has been called. This interpretive ambiguity is almost certainly intentional: Caravaggio forces the viewer to participate in the drama by asking, "Who is being called?" - and by extension, "Am I being called?"

Christ's pointing hand deliberately echoes the gesture of God's hand in Michelangelo's Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, creating a typological link between creation and vocation: just as God brought Adam to life with an extended finger, Christ calls Matthew to new life with the same gesture. Saint Peter, positioned between Christ and the seated group, acts as a mediating figure - the Church through which Christ's call reaches the world.

The costumes create a deliberate anachronism. The seated figures wear contemporary sixteenth-century Roman clothing - plumed hats, doublets, swords - while Christ and Peter are dressed in first-century robes. This collision of periods insists that the call of Matthew is not a historical event safely confined to the past but a present reality: Christ enters the viewer's own world.

Art Historical Significance

The Calling of Saint Matthew was revolutionary on multiple levels. First, Caravaggio's decision to set a biblical scene in a contemporary Roman tavern, populated by figures who look like ordinary street toughs, broke with the Renaissance convention of idealizing sacred history. This radical naturalism scandalized some viewers but electrified others, establishing an aesthetic of sacred realism that would dominate European painting for the next century.

Second, the dramatic use of light - a raking shaft that enters from outside the picture frame and illuminates the scene selectively - introduced the technique that came to be called tenebrism (from the Italian tenebroso, "dark"). This was not merely a stylistic innovation but a theological one: light in Caravaggio's paintings functions as grace, entering the scene from beyond the visible world and revealing what was hidden in darkness.

Third, the painting demonstrated that monumental religious art could achieve its effects through psychological drama rather than idealized beauty, opening a path that would be followed by Rembrandt, Velazquez, Georges de La Tour, and countless others.

Theological Interpretations

Catholic interpretation has traditionally read the painting as an image of divine vocation - God's call to every individual, which comes unexpectedly, into the midst of ordinary life, and demands an immediate response. The Jesuit tradition has been particularly drawn to the painting's emphasis on discernment: the ambiguity of who is being called mirrors the Ignatian practice of discerning God's will through attention to movements of consolation and desolation.

Protestant interpreters have valued the painting's emphasis on grace: Matthew is called not because of his virtue (he is a tax collector, a figure of moral compromise) but solely because of Christ's initiative. The shaft of light, representing unmerited grace, falls on sinners and saints alike.

Orthodox theologians have noted that Caravaggio's naturalism represents a departure from the Orthodox icon tradition, which deliberately avoids illusionistic realism in favor of an inverted perspective that draws the viewer into a sacred space. However, the painting's use of light as a vehicle of divine presence shares a conceptual affinity with the Orthodox theology of divine illumination.

Pope Francis has cited the painting as personally significant, noting that Matthew's gesture of astonished self-identification ("Who, me?") mirrors his own experience of being called to ministry. Francis chose the motto miserando atque eligendo ("by having mercy and by choosing"), drawn from a homily by the Venerable Bede on the calling of Matthew.

Controversies & Debates

The identification of Matthew among the seated figures remains the painting's most vigorously debated interpretive question. The traditional identification (the bearded man pointing at himself) was challenged in 1986 by the art historian Cees Nooteboom and more recently by scholars including Sara Magister, who argued that the true Matthew is the young man at the far left with his head bowed over the coins. This reading would mean that the bearded man's gesture is not self-identification but deflection - "Do you mean him?" - adding another layer of psychological complexity.

The painting's condition is generally good, though the dark areas have become increasingly opaque over time as the dark pigments have absorbed light. No major restoration has been undertaken in recent decades.

Legacy & Influence

The Calling of Saint Matthew spawned an entire artistic movement. The "Caravaggisti" - followers of Caravaggio including Orazio Gentileschi, Artemisia Gentileschi, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Gerrit van Honthorst, and Hendrick ter Brugghen - spread tenebrism and naturalistic sacred painting across Italy, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. The painting's influence can be traced in works as varied as Rembrandt's Supper at Emmaus, Velazquez's Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, and Georges de La Tour's nocturnal scenes.

In popular culture, the painting's dramatic lighting has influenced cinematographers from Gordon Willis (The Godfather) to Roger Deakins, and its composition has been referenced in films, advertisements, and photography. The image of Christ's hand reaching into ordinary darkness remains one of the most powerful visual metaphors for divine intervention in Western art.

Visiting the Work

The Calling of Saint Matthew is in the Contarelli Chapel, the fifth chapel on the left nave of the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Piazza di San Luigi dei Francesi, 00186 Rome. The church is open daily (closed Thursday afternoons) and admission is free. The chapel paintings are illuminated by a coin-operated light box (bring euro coins). The church is a short walk from the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. Arrive early in the morning or late in the afternoon to avoid crowds.

Further Reading

- Puglisi, Catherine. Caravaggio. Phaidon, 1998. - Langdon, Helen. Caravaggio: A Life. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999. - Vodret, Rossella, ed. Caravaggio: The Complete Works. Silvana Editoriale, 2010.