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AP®︎/College Art History
Course: AP®︎/College Art History > Unit 5
Lesson 4: Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation- Cranach, Law and Gospel (Law and Grace)
- Il Gesù, including Triumph of the Name of Jesus ceiling fresco
- Bruegel, Hunters in the Snow (Winter)
- Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hunters in the Snow (Winter)
- Caravaggio, Calling of Saint Matthew and Inspiration of St. Matthew
- Rubens, The Presentation of the Portrait of Marie de' Medici
- Rubens, The Presentation of the Portrait of Marie de' Medici
- Rembrandt, Self-Portrait with Saskia
- Geometry and motion in Borromini's San Carlo
- Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
- Velázquez, Las Meninas
- Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance
- Château de Versailles
- Rachel Ruysch, Fruit and Insects
- William Hogarth, Marriage A-la-Mode (including Tête à Tête)
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Caravaggio, Calling of Saint Matthew and Inspiration of St. Matthew
Caravaggio's "Calling of Saint Matthew" captures a powerful moment of spiritual awakening. Set in a gritty, realistic environment, Christ points to Matthew, a tax collector, inviting him to follow. The painting highlights the divine entering everyday life, emphasizing the transformative power of faith and making spirituality accessible to all. Caravaggio, Calling of St. Matthew and Inspiration of St. Matthew, oil on canvas, c. 1599-1600 (Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome). Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- What's with all the noise in the background?(2 votes)
- We record in front of the actual painting and this particular canvas is in a crowded church.(20 votes)
- Is that a hint of a halo on Jesus or is it just a scratch or something else above his head?(6 votes)
- The light source is quite interesting. Clearly it is not coming from the window depicted in the paint. Also, it cannot come from a door or window (they would be too high). It is probably the representation of the divine nature of Christ(3 votes)
- It may be a window placed higher than the one depicted.(5 votes)
- Could the grille of the window be a reference to the Christian cross? I thought that perhaps this could be possible due to the window's brightness and proximity to Christ's hand.(5 votes)
- It could be. Nothing stops the artist from putting anything at all into a painting. What I'd assume, though, is that it's just a window, of the sort that was common at the time of Caravaggio in the place where he lived. The fact that it's divided into 4 panes with a cross-like construction of wood may have had more to do with the strength of glass at that time or the preferred way to do windows in that place.(0 votes)
- Why did the speakers not talk about Christ's halo? (there is a tiny wisp of one above his head)(3 votes)
- That's a really cool observation. Maybe the fact that they didn't mention it speaks to its clever subtlety.(4 votes)
- I don't understand the lighting of the room. I feel like the shadow which Christ is standing in should be light, and the light above him should be a shadow, because the open doorway should be where the light is coming from .(3 votes)
- Since it is speculated that this scene is taking place in a sketchy location, perhaps in the backroom of a bar, it would make sense that there are stairs leading down to this setting. The way I see the picture is that there is a door at the top of a short staircase, which would account for the strange lighting.(2 votes)
- Did anyone else get here by clicking on a link from computer programming(3 votes)
- I noticed that the feet of Jesus do not look as though he is walking into the scene, but quite the opposite. One foot is facing forward, and the other is lifted onto the toes and facing towards the exit, as though he is walking away from the table and the people there. This makes me think he had called Matthew and was walking away expecting Matthew to follow.
The person seated closest to us at the table also appears to be about to move in the same direction, to pursue Jesus, as though he was not happy at the group being caught counting their ill-gotten gains.(3 votes) - Would the way Christ is presented here be considered "Mannerism" like?(1 vote)
- Not really. Mannerism isn't so much a period of art so much as an epithet for a few artists coming after Michelangelo who emulated him to some extent - artists like Pontormo and Parmigianino. Mannerist artists were concerned more with showing their mastery of anatomy, placing together many nude figures, sometimes a bit awkwardly, sometimes surreally (no, not related to the modern movement, I know!) in architectural landscapes that couldn't possibly exist in the real world. The resulting work is often hard to understand, and sometimes more about showing off. This work by Caravaggio emphasizes the story, and the drama of the scene, far removed from such concerns. Just because the drawing and detail are accurate, it doesn't mean they're gratuitous.(5 votes)
- What art movement was this in?(1 vote)
- Caravaggio is known as one of the founders of the Baroque style.
https://www.wondrium.com/a-history-of-european-art?tn=632_tray_Course_1_1_3195&lec=29
(Wondrium, course = "A History of European Art", classes 29 and 30, "Caravaggio" and "Italian Baroque Painting in Rome", respectively)(1 vote)
Video transcript
(piano playing) Dr. David Drogin: We're looking at a really wonderful Caravaggio. This is a painting of the
Calling of Saint Matthew in San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. Dr. Beth Harris: In the Contarelli Chapel. David: That's right, in the larger church. Beth: And it's in a chapel
with two other paintings by Caravaggio all about Matthew. David: So, Matthew was
one of Christ's disciples. So, which one is he here? Beth: It's a little hard
to find him here, actually. David: It's a complicated
group of figures here. Beth: It's very complicated. I love the subject. Christ
is walking in on the right. David: Which one is Christ? There are two figures on the right. Beth: Yeah, I think
Saint Peter is in front of Christ on the right. David: He's the sort
of heavy, powerful ... Beth: Rough looking guy. David: Yeah, with the short, cropped hair. Beth: And behind him, half obscured, is facing us, is Christ
with his arm outstretched. David: He looks much more noble, younger, more delicate actually. Beth: And there's a kind
of delicacy to his gestures that remove him, I think,
from the regular world that the other figures seem to occupy as he seems to point over
and Matthew is the one who is pointing to himself in disbelief. David: He's the older
figure with the large beard. Beth: With a black hat. David: Yes, and a dark tunic. Beth: And I think, if
I remember correctly, the story is that Matthew
is a tax collector and he's sitting with his
fellow tax collectors. Christ walks in and sees
Matthew and basically says, "You, come with me." David: And there's this
moment of conversion. This is this incredible
moment of spiritual awakening. Beth: Right, which is
a very typical subject in baroque art. David: So, this notion of transformation. Beth: At this moment that Christ says, "Hey you, you're coming with me." Matthew points to himself. "Me?" David: "You can't possibly mean me." Beth: Right. "I'm a tax collector." David: Well, there's all kinds of negative implications, it's not just
that he's working for the IRS for instance, right? Beth: A little bit more
shady even of an era. David: It's much more shady. I mean, look at the
environment they're in. This is so important for Caravaggio. He's not showing Christ in Heaven. He's not showing Christ in an elevated, plasticized environment. He's in this, what
looks like the back room of a tavern or a bar. Beth: Yes. David: And when we look at it, it looks like he's
surrounded by younger men who are counting money. Beth: Yeah, they're leaning over, sort of, greedily, the figure especially
on the left, counting money. David: And they're armed. They've got swords. They're dressed in very fancy clothes. Beth: Yeah, you sort
of imagine one of them whipping out their swords any second and getting into a bar room brawl, almost. David: That's right, but
there's this real sense that this money is not gotten legally. I mean, imagine if you
walked into a bar now and you walked into the
back room and there were very overly dressed,
ostentatiously dressed young men with guns counting money. (laughing) Would that be an environment
you'd want to be in? Beth: I think that's
what makes this moment of conversion all the more wonderful. David: But how potent this must have been when this painting is made in 1599, 1600. When Christ is being shown in really this much more contemporary environment and all of this is made real. Beth: Very real. The
figures are so removed from the idealized beauty
of the high Renaissance. David: It must have been
challenging, a little scary, but really exciting. Beth: When Caravaggio
brings the spiritual down to everyday level that we
can all totally relate to instead of that distance that was there in the high Renaissance. David: Which was really interesting. If you think that, you
know, these are paintings in Rome with all the
pomp and ceremony of Rome and Caravaggio is giving such a fresh ... Beth: I know, it's wonderful isn't it? David: It's really fabulous, isn't it? Beth: I know. The thing
that I always think about with this painting when I try to relate it to living in the 21st century, I imagine sometimes, my own version
of a greedy moment. Maybe it's the holidays
and I'm supposed to be shopping for friends
and family and instead I'm buying something for
myself and I'm getting my credit card out. Try to imagine Christ walking in the door of Banana Republic and saying, "You. I've chosen you." David: So out of context. Look at the way that Caravaggio
is handling light here. Because it's not just Christ walking in. He is the embodiment of
a kind of spiritual force in that, as he points to Matthew and your eye can go from his glance, across his hand to Matthew's finger ... Beth: Following that diagonal line. David: ... of the sunlight. It seems to be pouring in, maybe a doorway that they've opened, who knows what. Beth: And it's as though
that point of Christ almost, there sends this piercing rays to Matthew that gets to him, but also, in a way interrupts this
moment of reality in the tavern so that he is, sort of, suspended between this moment of calling and transformation and conversion, but
also this is so immersed in his reality, of course, that's also a very baroque characteristic
of this caught, extreme moment of time
and also what's very baroque about it that
I appreciate this way that the divine has entered everyday life. David: Yeah, absolutely. Beth: We see that in Saint Teresa and in so many other baroque paintings. David: In a sense, the baroque is taking these intensely spiritual
forms that have come out of the Renaissance,
maintaining the high naturalism and really building on the high naturalism of the Renaissance, but putting it in an environment where, as you said earlier, it
is completely accessible and very, very real and immediate. Beth: I know. Almost sometimes, to me, not just real and immediate, but almost pedestrian and dirty. David: Yeah. Beth: If you look at
the bare feet of Peter, of Christ, there's something gritty about Caravaggio's realism. David: Look at the window. It seems as if those
panes have been covered Beth: The soot. The walls look dirty and grimy. This is not an ideal environment at all. I have one thing that's
always been, I thought, very curious. If you look at Christ's hand, there's a lot of attention
that's compositionally on that hand, right under
the cross at the window and that slight bend of the wrist. It is the hand that
Michael Angelo had painted, Beth: Adam. David: And here, in an
interesting kind of reversal. I mean, there has been
a tradition, of course, of seeing ... Beth: Christ as the second Adam. David: That's right. Beth: Adam who causes the fall of mankind and Christ who redeems mankind. David: So, in a sense,
bookends on this story. Beth: And this moment of redemption, personal redemption for Matthew. David: Just as Adam was
created, in a sense, Matthew was recreated. (piano playing)