The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew

Caravaggio painted The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew around 1600, the second of the three works for the Contarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi that established his reputation in Rome. The composition is dramatically different from his more famous Calling of Saint Matthew in the same chapel: where that work is a scene of quiet illumination, the Martyrdom is a violent eruption of bodies in space, an executioner advancing on the elderly saint before an altar, the witnesses scattering in horror. Caravaggio organized the complex multi-figure action through the device of the single illuminating light source, which makes a path through the darkness and defines the spatial relationships between the struggling bodies. The boy fleeing from the scene in the lower left is one of Caravaggio's most famous self-quotations.

The complex multi-figure composition centers on the assassin striking the fallen saint, with the dramatic diagonal lighting and the angel reaching down creating a powerful dynamic of violence and divine intervention.