The Inspiration of Saint Matthew

Caravaggio painted The Inspiration of Saint Matthew around 1602, the replacement for the first version of this subject rejected for the Contarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. The approved second version shows an angel descending to guide the Evangelist's writing — a more conventionally legible composition than the rejected first version, in which the angel had seemed to be physically directing the old man's hand like a secretary. Caravaggio's compromise between his naturalistic instincts and the patron's demand for decorum produced one of his most dynamically organized compositions: the angel arriving with urgency while Matthew turns to receive the divine communication, the two figures creating a diagonal energy across the canvas that replaced the earlier version's static composition.

The dynamic diagonal composition shows the angel descending to the writing saint, with Caravaggio's dramatic lighting illuminating the angel's flowing robes and Matthew's concentrated expression against the dark background.