Arcadópolis
The Calling of Saint Matthew
Caravaggio, 1599–1600
What you see
Five men sit around a table on the left, beneath a window with open shutters. A bearded man in a cap points, either at himself or at the young man still hunched over the coins; a boy in a feathered hat and an old man in spectacles turn to the right. That is where Jesus enters, almost in shadow and with a faint halo, beside a gray-haired man seen from behind.
Light falls from the upper right and slices across the wall with a crisp edge, picking out faces, red sleeves and white shirts and leaving the rest in brown shadow. Look for the coins on the table and for Jesus’s open hand, a gesture the gray-haired man echoes on a smaller scale.
About Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio after his family’s home town, painted scenes as if they were happening on a dark stage lit by a spotlight. He used ordinary people from the street as models, which was very daring at the time. His use of light and shadow inspired painters all over Europe.
More by Caravaggio
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