Shop art print and framed art St. Matthew and the Angel by Caravaggio

Saint Matthew and the Angel (Italian: San Matteo e l'angelo) is a painting by Caravaggio painted around 1602 for the Contarelli Chapel in the Church of Saint Louis of the French in Rome, where it has remained ever since. The painting was part of a commission for three separate pieces to decorate the chapel, all linked to the figure of Saint Matthew the Evangelist: Saint Matthew and the Angel shows him writing his Gospel under the dictation of an angel. Caravaggio's first proposal for the commission was rejected, and a second version in a completely different style and composition was finally installed in the chapel. This painting was commissioned by the French cardinal Matthieu Contarelli to provide a sumptuous decoration for the chapel he had acquired in the church of Saint-Louis-des-Français. Following his death in 1585, the Crescenzi (his executors) commissioned the young Caravaggio in 1599 to decorate the chapel with a cycle of three paintings on the life of Saint Matthew": the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, the Vocation of Saint Matthew and Saint Matthew and the Angel, which forms the altarpiece, the central painting on the altar. This altarpiece replaced a group sculpted by Cobaert, which had failed to satisfy the church's clergy. Caravaggio received the sum of 400 écus for this triple commission, a very large sum for the time. A first version of the painting was rejected as "too natural" - not only because the angel's sensuality was considered trivial, but also because [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the baroque style.

 

« St. Matthew and the Angel » is kept at Chiesa San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, Italy.

 

Find the full description of St. Matthew and the Angel by Caravaggio on Wikipedia.