On this page
THE CALL
Which figure is Matthew?
The painting shows Christ calling Matthew at a table where money is being counted. [2] Irving Lavin identifies Matthew as the centrally seated bearded man who turns towards Christ, and reports a competing identification of the youth bent over the coins at the left of the table. [4]
LOOK BEFORE YOU DECIDE
Follow the hands and the light
Start with the upper of the two extended hands at the right, then follow its direction towards the table. In their discussion of the painting, Beth Harris identifies Christ behind Peter, with Christ’s head and right arm visible. [2] The figures’ overlap makes the complete painting useful here: an isolated hand detail cannot identify the person it belongs to.
Steven Zucker reads light and gesture as identifying Christ and Matthew, and interprets their attention as distinguishing a focus on the spiritual from a focus on the earthly. [2] Follow the broad bright diagonal across the wall, then look below it at the seated faces. Compare the men looking towards the entering figures with those looking down at the table.
Harris describes a right hand still reaching towards collected money. [2] Lavin describes the bearded man’s right hand as paying money out, expressing charity. [4] Compare the actions each account proposes, then return to the complete scene.
TWO PROPOSALS
Compare the identification arguments
The bearded man
For Lavin, the bearded man’s position, his response to Christ and the light falling towards him support the identification as Matthew. He argues against identifying the youth who remains intent on money. [4] Compare the bearded man’s turned face with the direction of his extended finger.
Jarosław Jarzewicz also defends the traditional identification, but stresses the painting’s contexts: related images, the neighbouring works, the commission and its reception. In his article’s English summary, he reads the bearded man and the bowed youth as opposite responses to a call. [1] Look between the bearded man’s turned face and the youth’s bowed head, then compare where their attention is directed.
The youth
Lavin reports three reasons advanced for the youth identification: the bearded man’s pointing gesture could indicate his companions; the youth’s face could correspond more closely to Matthew in the first altarpiece; and the two seated figures use the same chair design. Lavin rejects those arguments, reading the gesture as self-directed and treating the furniture as reused props. [4]
Follow the bearded man’s extended finger towards the left of the picture. Does the gesture read as directed towards himself or towards another figure? Lavin favours the first reading; the alternative he reports favours the second. [4] Keep the hand within the complete scene while testing those accounts.
Michał Haake’s English summary gives the youth particular prominence in the composition. He considers the bearded man’s pointing gesture ambiguous and argues that the coin hand does not clearly establish whether money is being collected or paid. Rather than deciding from a finger alone, he traces relationships from Christ and Peter towards the youth, including the light, window and table edge. [5]
Look from the bearded man towards the bowed figure at the left, then back towards Christ and Peter. Keep those relationships visible while comparing the arguments.
THE SURROUNDING WORKS
A scene made for a chapel
Harris and Zucker discuss three paintings in the Contarelli Chapel, with the Calling on the left. [2] Lavin describes four canvases made for the chapel: the Calling, the Martyrdom and two versions of the altarpiece showing Matthew writing his Gospel, counting each altarpiece version separately. [4]
Return to the complete image after looking at the details. The gesture belongs within this scene, and the scene belongs within the chapel programme. Jarzewicz makes the neighbouring paintings one part of his contextual case for identifying Matthew. [1]
ANOTHER CALLING
A later copy after Van Hemessen
The Met’s painting of the same subject is currently catalogued as a copy after Jan Sanders van Hemessen, made in the early seventeenth century. The museum says technical examination identified it as a copy of the original in Vienna. [6]
Comparison work: The Calling of Saint Matthew, copy after Jan Sanders van Hemessen, early seventeenth century, oil on wood, Met object 71.155. [6] View the Met’s record and image.
Open the Met’s whole image and find the small stacks of coins near the centre. Compare the overlapping heads and hands around that area with the space between the table group and the entering figures in Caravaggio’s painting.
Common questions
-
Is the Met’s painting by Caravaggio?
No. Its current catalogue identifies a copy after Jan Sanders van Hemessen, from the early seventeenth century. [6] It is a different physical work with the same subject.
Prints by Caravaggio are available. View the collection →
