A SCHOOL OF THE LORD'S SERVICE
The Calling of St Matthew
An article by Elizabeth Lev
In this article written especially for our magazine, art historian and writer Liz Lev invites us to discover one of Caravaggio’s most famous paintings in Rome, in the Chapel of St Matthew at the Church San Luigi dei Francesi. An invitation to reflect on our own experience of God’s mercy, on our own vocation. Just like Pope Francis, who heard the call to become a priest on St Matthew’s Day.
It was the approaching Jubilee Year that gave Milanese painter Caravaggio the chance of a lifetime. Born Michelangelo Merisi in 1571, it seemed like all the cards had been dealt against him. His father died of plague when he was two, and his impoverished childhood was marked by an erratic oil painting apprenticeship punctuated by skirmishes with law enforcement resulting in his flight to Rome around 1592. There, he found a city that favored fresco over oil, penny-pinching prelates who paid in “lettuce,” and the brutal realization that the name Michelangelo would only ever belong to one man, the famous Florentine painter, sculptor, and architect who had died thirty years earlier.
Hope is a cornerstone of a Holy Year, and soon Providence crossed Caravaggio’s path. The new French church dedicated to St Louis IX had commissioned the fashionable Cavaliere D’Arpino to decorate a chapel to St Matthew, but the overextended artist let the project languish. In desperation, just five months shy of Holy Year 1600, Caravaggio was offered the commission for the side walls, despite his unorthodox training and medium. And a star was born.
1) Caravaggio played to his strengths when orchestrating his vision of Matthew’s calling. He employed his skill in oil to highlight the pile of coins on the table and the luxurious finery, emphasizing Matthew’s wealth. Crisp silk, golden brocade, and lush velvet would have been as recognizable as the modern logos of our high-end designers. Matthew and company appear to have it all.
2) The painting, meant to be seen from the side, leads the eye to Christ, standing closest to the altar. He emerges from the darkness, and with a finger reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Adam in the Sistine Chapel, points into the group of men. Matthew’s personal call from Christ would have resonated with Caravaggio, providentially “chosen” as a silent preacher to the pilgrims who would flood the church during the Holy Year.
3) Caravaggio unveiled an innovative use of light in this work, allowing the bright beam behind Christ to cut through the darkness of the scene. Erupting from above the altar, this is not natural light, as the darkened window above attests. This is divine illumination, the moment that Matthew finally sees his true calling. Caravaggio, too, was transformed by this commission – he never returned to secular subjects again.
4) Who is Matthew? The crowded group with differing reactions may be confusing, so Caravaggio used his supernatural light to focus attention on Matthew. Wedged in the booth between his colleagues, still clasping a coin in his hand, the thunderstruck Matthew points to himself. He appears trapped by his present life. But Caravaggio not only captured that shock of realization when God calls, but he also revealed the light the Lord shines to clear our path to him.
5) Who are we? Caravaggio visualizes an array of responses to God’s call. Two young men are dazzled, ready to leap up: less to lose, less set in their ways, it is easier for them to follow. The two men on the left, closest to us viewers, are so absorbed by worldly wealth they ignore the extraordinary encounter taking place. Are we like Matthew, looking up and searching for more? Or are we distracted by our own ambitions? Caravaggio’s startling work asks whether or not we are ready to hear Christ’s call.
Elizabeth Lev
PS: Despite the interpretation widely held by art historians that the bearded man in the centre of the group is St Matthew, another theory – supported in particular by Pope Francis – identifies St Matthew as the young man at the end of the table. Whilst Christ has already called him and he is about to leave the scene, Matthew is still engrossed in his accounts.
And he got up and followed him.
—Matthew 9:9