Baroque

 

"The Calling of Saint Matthew" by Caravaggio
1599-1600

For this week's blog, I would like to analyze Caravaggio's The Calling of Saint Matthew. I find this chiaroscuro so interesting and there is so much detail packed into it. At first glance, it looks like a few men are gathered around a table and counting money. However, once you look more closely you can see Caravaggio painted a piece of the Bible. Specifically, Matthew 9:9 

"As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collecter's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him." 

Once you hear or understand this verse, the painting becomes much clearer and becomes more meaningful. Caravaggio puts the tiniest details into this piece which are truly the most influential part and can get lost if you're not paying attention. The main figures, Christ and Matthew, are almost hidden inside the silent yet dramatic scene. Christ stands behind St. Peter to where he's barely noticeable, but Caravaggio uses the contrast of light and dark to expose (or highlight) a part of Christ's hand and face. Furthermore, Caravaggio expresses the barest hint of the divine in the hairline halo above Christ's head. 

You could definitely pick out Christ if you were unfamiliar with the Bible. However, it becomes more difficult to depict which figure is St. Matthew if you weren't familiar with scripture. In Matthew 9:9, Christ is calling upon Matthew to become his disciple and we can see this being depicted as Christ points at Matthew and Matthew points to himself as well in question. Almost as if Matthew is silently asking "me??" -which I would totally do as well if Jesus called me to follow him. 

Both Christ and Matthew are identified by light and gesture (their pointing). We can see there is light streaming in from an unknown source- perhaps a second window- which pours in from Christ's head to Matthew's face. Caravaggio's intense naturalism creates such a beautiful and sharp contrast of light and shadow that it almost feels like we could jump into this piece and live inside the scene. If you've read my blog before, you know I talk about the Bible a lot, so yes, I would absolutely have this piece in my home!

Caravaggio's The Calling of Saint Matthew was obviously influenced by the church, but I also believe there is some influence from the rise of the merchant classes. It may be a little bit of a stretch but bear with me here. The rise of merchant classes created more growth within society and their economy, "merchants were the elite class of many towns and controlled the town government" (Tusker). In The Calling of Saint Matthew, Caravaggio dresses Matthew and the other men in elite contemporary clothing, and they are shown sitting at a tax collector's booth counting money. We can infer that Matthew is a tax collector, which is technically a kind of merchant. Even though this is not the main focus of the painting, the rise of the merchant class could have been an influence for Caravaggio. 

Work Cited. 

Benaven, J. “Baroque: The Calling of St. Matthew.” JBENAVENTEBLOG, 18 Feb. 2016, jbenaventeblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/18/baroque-the-calling-of-st-matthew/.

Camara, Dr. Esperança. “Baroque Art in Europe, an Introduction.” Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/baroque-art1/beginners-guide-baroque1/a/baroque-art-in-europe-an-introduction.

“Caravaggio, Calling of Saint Matthew.” Translated by Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/baroque-art1/baroque-italy/v/caravaggios-calling-of-saint-matthew.

“The Rise of the Merchant Class.” Tusker Geografica, https://www.tusker.com/Geografica/working-for-a-living/.