The Calling of St. Matthew by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

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The Calling of St. Matthew is an oil painting on canvas done in the late 1500's at the very beginning of the Baroque period by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. He brings this canvas to life with vivid colors; bold contrasts of reds, golds, and greens and various textures of velvets and soft fur.
Caravaggio painted several paintings for this church in Rome, San Luigi dei Francesi. This painting tells the story from Matthew 9:9 in the New Testament when Matthew became a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus asked Matthew to follow him and he did. When looking at the painting closely you can see that Jesus was in poor clothing and Matthew and the people at his table are in what appears to be very expensive and colorful clothing.
New artistic challenges appeared during fruition of this piece. One of the major struggles in “The Calling of St. Matthew", was figuring how to place and dramatize seven individual people. Caravaggio later mastered what became one of his celebrated hallmarks, the use of chiaroscuro (light and shadow) for both theatrical and formal effects. This helped to unify t...

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