Contarelli Chapel
Encyclopedia
San Luigi dei Francesi
The Church of St. Louis of the French is a Roman Catholic minor basilica and titular church in Rome, not far from Piazza Navona. The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to St. Denis the Areopagite and St. Louis IX, king of France...
in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, is famous for housing three paintings on the theme of Saint Matthew the Evangelist by the Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
master Caravaggio
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque...
.
The chapel commemorates the French cardinal Matthieu Cointrel, (Contarelli in Italian), who on his death in 1585 left an endowment and instructions for the decoration of the chapel, first one to the left of the apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
, which he had purchased within San Luigi dei Francesi ("Saint Louis of the French"), the church of the French community in Rome. The cardinal was rich—he had already paid for part of the construction of the church facade and put a large sum towards the high altar—and he specified that his chapel be decorated with scenes from the life of his name-saint, Matthew the Evangelist
Matthew the Evangelist
Matthew the Evangelist was, according to the Bible, one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the four Evangelists.-Identity:...
.
His executor, Virglio Cresenzi, commissioned a Flemish sculptor, Jacques Cobaert, to make a marble statue of Matthew and an angel for the altar. Giuseppe Cesari
Giuseppe Cesari
Giuseppe Cesari was an Italian Mannerist painter, also named Il Giuseppino and called Cavaliere d'Arpino, because he was created Cavaliere di Cristo by his patron Pope Clement VIII. He was much patronized in Rome by both Sixtus V.-Biography:Cesari's father had been a native of Arpino, but...
, one of the foremost artists then active in Rome, was contracted to fresco the two side walls and the vault. The details were clearly set out in the contract—Cobaert's altarpiece would show Matthew sitting in a chair, about to write the Gospel, with an angel standing and "appearing to reason or in other suitable pose." Cesari's side walls would show, on the right, Saint Matthew in his counting house
Counting house
A counting house, or compting house, literally is the building, room, office or suite in which a business firm carries on operations, particularly accounting. By a synecdoche, it has come to mean the accounting operations of a firm, however housed...
(Matthew was a tax collector before becoming an apostle of Christ), suitably dressed, rising "to go to Our Lord, who, passing by with his disciples in the street, calls him..." On the left, Matthew at the moment of his martyrdom, celebrating Mass at the altar, with "a crowd of men and women, young and old and children...some appalled and others pitying..."
Jubilee (Christian)
The concept of the Jubilee is a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon. In the Biblical Book of Leviticus, a Jubilee year is mentioned to occur every fifty years, in which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven and the mercies of God would be particularly...
. "France...is not yet suffiently cleansed from the thorns and weeds of heresy and corruption," the Pope had told his French bishops. The new French king, Henry IV
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
, had recently converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, but much remained to be done. Conversion, no less than martyrdom, was to be the Pope's theme with regard to France, Rome would be crowded with French pilgrims, and the chapel threatened to be boarded up. The clergy in charge of San Luigi became alarmed. The prefect in charge of the Fabricca, and of the money, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte
Francesco Maria Del Monte
Francesco Maria Del Monte, full name Francesco Maria Bourbon Del Monte Santa Maria, was an Italian Cardinal, diplomat and connoisseur of the arts...
, suggested that his own personal painter, Michelangelo Merisi, known from his home town as Caravaggio, should be contracted to paint oils on canvas for the two side walls where Cesari would obviously never put his murals.
The contracts with Caravaggio were signed on 23 July 1599. Despite agonisings over the composition of the second painting, Caravaggio's The Calling of Saint Matthew
The Calling of St Matthew (Caravaggio)
The Calling of Saint Matthew is a masterpiece by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, depicting the Calling of Matthew. It was completed in 1599-1600 for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of the French congregation, San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome...
and The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew
The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (Caravaggio)
The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew is a painting by the Italian master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It is located in the Contarelli Chapel of the church of the French congregation San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, where it hangs opposite The Calling of Saint Matthew and beside the altarpiece The...
were installed by July 1600. This was later than the contract called for (May 1600), but after more than two decades it must have been a relief to have anything at all. Moreover, the two paintings caused a sensation, and became the talk of Rome with their dramatic yet realistic approach to the familiar story from the Gospels. When Cobaert finally delivered his statues, the churchmen decided they didn't like them, and commissioned Caravaggio to do another painting for the altarpiece, still following the Cardinal's original instructions. The third and final work, The Inspiration of Saint Matthew
The Inspiration of Saint Matthew
The Inspiration of Saint Matthew is a painting by the Italian master Caravaggio. Commissioned by the French Cardinal Matteo Contarelli, the canvas hangs in Contarelli chapel altar in the church of the French congregation San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, Italy...
, was in place by 1602—although not without difficulty, the first version was rejected for the vulgarity of the saint's crossed legs and bare feet, and for the overly-familiar way in which the angel cuddled up to him. In the second version on view today the angel keeps a respectful distance, and the saint is a little more dignified.
The decorative cycle began with the painting on the left side of the chapel, invisible to the viewer when first entering the church. It is a large panel of the Calling of St. Matthew
The Calling of St Matthew (Caravaggio)
The Calling of Saint Matthew is a masterpiece by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, depicting the Calling of Matthew. It was completed in 1599-1600 for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of the French congregation, San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome...
, one of Carvaggio's most well-known works. On the right of the composition, Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
and St. Peter look directly at a seated Matthew. Garbed in robes of antiquity, Jesus and his companion fit perfectly into the scene. Jesus points at Matthew, producing the Calling aspect. His hand is a direct reference to the receiving hand of Adam in the Creation of Adam panel on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio...
. Matthew and his companions, in contrast, are wearing robes concurrent with Caravaggio's time. Matthew points at himself in a "Who, me?" gesture with one hand, while his other fingers coins on the table, referencing his previous vocation as a tax collector. (It has recently been suggested that the young boy with his head down at the end of the table is actually Matthew, and the older, bearded man traditionally identified as Matthew is pointing at this figure instead. The theory remains controversial). Another controversy surrounds the position of the large hand across the waist of the young man at the end of the table. The hand is clearly not his, but resembles the hand of the elderly man in furs who stands to the young man's left. Caravaggio was a notorious trickster with a well known penchant for young men, and it is entirely possible that this groping hand was intentional. There are many other examples of this playfulness, for example the Card Sharps where a young man conceals cards behind his back as his accomplice signals the card his opponent is holding.
On the right side of the wall, visible upon entry, is the Martyrdom of St. Matthew
The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (Caravaggio)
The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew is a painting by the Italian master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It is located in the Contarelli Chapel of the church of the French congregation San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, where it hangs opposite The Calling of Saint Matthew and beside the altarpiece The...
, depicting the scene in which Matthew meets his ultimate end. In contrast to the relatively staid Calling on the opposing wall, this scene is full of action, swirling around the composition of hands at the center. Matthew at once wards off his attacker while reaching for the martyr's palm being dangled just out of his reach by the angel (It is also proposed that the main nude figure is not in fact the assassin but is instead a shocked catechumen. The bloodied sword in his hand is a retrieved weapon possibly dropped by the 'self portrait' of Caravaggio in the background who is actually the assassin. This figure appears to have been reaching for his weapon but is retreating with his fellow soldiers. This notion is not mainstream and is debatable.) Interesting components in this work include the nudes in the foreground who watch the scene unobtrusively, almost as if this is a theatrical production and the self portrait of Caravaggio in the background (the bearded man).
At the center of the chapel is The Inspiration of Saint Matthew
The Inspiration of Saint Matthew
The Inspiration of Saint Matthew is a painting by the Italian master Caravaggio. Commissioned by the French Cardinal Matteo Contarelli, the canvas hangs in Contarelli chapel altar in the church of the French congregation San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, Italy...
, a scene in which an angel dictates to St. Matthew the gospel. Though not as intrinsically interesting as the other two, it provides an interesting interaction with the viewer's space. St. Matthew, jumping up to greet the angel, pushes his stool out over an apparent threshold created by the artist and into the realm of the viewer, this completes the interactive nature of this chapel, resulting in an intra-personal dialogue.
Although the three paintings by Caravaggio are today the star attraction of the chapel, the frescos by Cesari, who, although overshadowed by Caravaggio, nevertheless represent the final flowering of the Mannerist school. The Cesari fresco was finished about 1593, at which point Caravaggio was working for Cesari - who was only two years older. Cesari, an acute businessman as well as a skilful artist, valued his assistant's gift for painting flowers and fruit, and Caravaggio may have had a hand in the swags of greenery decorating the vault.