Baroque and Caravaggio

The Calling of Saint Matthew by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Italian); 1599-1600; oil.
Location: Rome, Italy; San Luigi dei Francesi.

        Baroque is a cultural movement that occurred in many disciplines, including art, architecture, literature, and music. Baroque paintings are characterized by deep, saturated colors and the use of contrasting lighting to create mood. Often depicting people, their emotions are exaggerated, creating a dramatic intensity which is then invoked in the viewer.

        In The Calling of St. Matthew by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, one can easily see these attributes. First, the viewer can observe the colors. Caravaggio uses dark blacks and browns, and rich golds, teals, and crimsons. Secondly, and perhaps more noticeable, is his use of the light source it the upper-right corner of the image. This light source accomplishes a few things: it creates highlights and shadows, making a high contrast image, which adds to the drama; the light source suggests that there is space beyond the canvas that the viewer cannot see, extending the space represented; and the light source symbolizes the divine, complimenting the subject matter.

        This painting depicts a story from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 9:9), where Jesus tells Matthew, a tax collector, to follow him. While there is a consensus among scholars that Jesus is the man standing and pointing, with Saint Peter beside him, scholars debate over which man Matthew is. The confusion stems from the bearded man, whose expression of surprise and hand gesture could mean one of two things: he is asking if he is to follow Jesus or if the younger man at the end of the table is the one requested. Another possible explanation is that Caravaggio actually intended for the painting to be ambiguous as to which man Matthew is.

        If the viewer is to take the Baroque idea of dramatic importance into account, the best answer might be that Matthew is indeed the man at left, with his head down. The reasoning behind this is that the moment depicted is the moment right before Matthew looks up at Jesus, which is equivalent to the moment right before a crescendo in music; this is the moment just before Matthew's entire journey as an apostle of Jesus began, when Matthew was still an ordinary man collecting taxes.