Gemälde InfosThe Calling of St Matthew, a pendant to the previous painting and hanging opposite it in the Contarelli Chapel, was particularly appropriate to both the place and the time, for Rome's French community had something to celebrate: Henri IV, heir to St Louis, had recently converted to the faith of his ancestors.
On this occasion, Caravaggio adhered to the biblical narrative relating to the apostle's conversion. Levi, a rich tax-gatherer or publican, is called by Christ out of darkness into God's light. Natural daylight, from some window high up on a wall to the right (mimicking the actual fall of light in the chapel) touches Christ's halo, face and right hand and the faces of the two youths who react to his presence, but not the eyes of the figures on the left who ignore it. The focus is on Levi, Matthew-to-be, whose attention is caught by Christ's glance and whose gesture queries whether it is he who is called. Complex rhythms of hands and feet, verticals and horizontals, reds and browns unify the picture, and a mood of serenity suffuses the moment of spiritual enlightenment.
In his drama of conversion Caravaggio shows his debts to northern European and northern Italian art. There was a Flemish tradition of pictures of money-lenders; and the two figures at the left, absorbed in the counting of coins, derive from Holbein. The two youths to the right with their plumed hats are Giorgionesque. But there is a Roman solemnity about the figures to the far right, for Christ and St Peter wear antique, timeless costume; and connoisseurs would have recognized in Christ's pointing gesture the reversed pose of the hand of Michelangelo's Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The divine and eternal nature of the message is stressed for the contemporary viewer.
Alt Ausse: ......
