Caravaggio: Scaling the Heights

The Caravaggio 2025 exhibition placed the paintings on show into categories with which I remain less-than-thrilled. For example, the paintings presented under the heading “Invigorating the Dark Shades,” are, to my mind, actually a subset of the earliest-mentioned category “Making a Name for Himself in Rome” because Caravaggio did not really become widely known until after his completion of the paintings in the Contarelli Chapel. 

I traveled to a number of churches in Rome — the homes of these period pieces — so that (i) I could have pictorial evidence of their existence and (ii) to slot them into this discussion of the works of the Master. I title these paintings that bring Caravaggio fame “Caravaggio: Scaling the Heights.”

The first of these paintings was installed at the Contarelli Chapel of San Luis dei Francesi. This chapel was named after Matteo Contarelli, a Frenchman from Anjou and Cardinal Datary for Pope Gregory XIII. Contarelli had personally been involved with the design of the chapel since 1563 but died in 1585 prior to its completion. After his death, the Executor of his estate, and the congregation, resumed the project sometime between 1591 and 1593. They modified the initial plan to instead have Cavalier d’ Arpino work in the vaults and lunettes while the Flemish sculptor Jacob Cobert would work on the altar statue. This plan was itself abandoned in favor of a plan for paintings by Caravaggio. 

In 1599, thanks to the intervention of Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, Caravaggio received his first public commission to paint canvases for the Contarelli chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi. The cycle, focused on the life of Saint Matthew, was not only a challenge for Merisi, who had to grapple with paintings of "historia" for the first time, it represents a crucial watershed in his production because, from that moment on, Caravaggio painted almost only religious paintings, and in them, we begin to see that "tragic" style that came to characterize his production. This chapel features some of the most emblematic religious-themed works of the mature Merisi.

The first painting that he did was the Martydom of St. Matthew. The painting captures the scene after Matthew had already been struck. He is reaching upwards for the palm, the symbol of martyrdom. Caravaggio can be seen leaning in from the back left. 

Contarelli Chapel

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 
The Martyrdom of St. Matthew, 1599 - 1602
(San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome; viewed in situ, 9/24/2025)

According to the literature accompanying the display, “The great innovation … lies in the use of light in the composition: the natural light coming through the window and the light masterfully rendered in the painting by Caravaggio’s genius.”

The most famous of the paintings in the chapel, according to Dr. Rocky Ruggiero, is the Calling of St. Matthew. 

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 
The Calling of St. Matthew, 1599 - 1600
(San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome; viewed in situ, 9/24/2025)

I have previously analyzed this painting and present the results herein.

He had two passes at St. Matthew and the Angel for the altarpiece. The first effort was rejected because it did not present St Matthew in the finest light. That piece was destroyed in Berlin in 1942. The second version is shown below where St Matthew writes his gospel, inspired by an angel.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 
St. Matthew and the Angel, 1602
(San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome; viewed 
in situ, 9/24/2025)

The painting John the Baptist (1602) resident in the Capitoline Museum is one of eight works by Caravaggio of this subject. According to the side panel:

The light comes from the top left and strikes the youth's nude back, part of his face, and his right leg, but leaving the rest of the body in shadow. In the work, Caravaggio makes the divine human and the human divine: Saint John is re-embodied as a grinning, impish and sensual youth, expressing with his whole body the joy of living. The boy in his turn interprets a young saint still unaware of his dramatic destiny. The picture appears to merge suddenly from the darkness, and to take sudden shape before our eyes in a real space, under a real light, and in real time -- a figure it seems we can almost touch.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 
John the Baptist, 1602
(Musei Capitoline, Rome; viewed
in situ, 4/18/2026)

The young Baptist is missing the usual identifying attributes --- bowl, reed cross, lamb -- with the lamb being substituted by a Ram. It is speculated thatthe Baptist's pose was inspired by Michelangelo's Ignudi on the Sistine Chapel.

The most likely provenance of the piece is as follows:

• Commissioned by Ciriaco Mattei
• Given to him by his son Giovanni Battista
• Bequeathed by the son to Cardinal del Monte in Wills of January 1623 and June 1624
• Listed in the del Monte inventory of 1627
• Sold at the del Monte sale of 1628 to Cardinal Pio
• Sold by the Pio family to Pope Benedict XIV in 1749/50  to be lodged in the newly founded Capitoline Museum.

By this time Carravaggio had gained critical and popular acclaim.  The next phase of his career, as I see it, was him "riding the wave."