Analysis of “The Caling of St.

Matthew” through

visual analysis and iconography

Major:Curating and Art history

Name:Dantong Li,Cabi
Student ID:5331296
The Call of St. Matthew, painted by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,who is an outstanding
Italian realist painter in 1599, depicts the biblical scene of Jesus' call to Matthew. Caravaggio had
made the scene a dark room, with a high wall behind them, and no light from the Windows on
the high wall. On the left side of the picture is Matthew and a few other tax collectors and
soldiers with sharp swords to help collect the tax, sitting around a small table, clearing money
and books. On the right are St. Peter with his shoulders twisted, and Jesus, who is almost
completely covered by him, with only his face and right hand visible.

（Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1599, works of Baroque art, Oil on canvas）

According to the research of Owen Panofsky2, iconography can be divided into three levels, the
first level for the basic situation analysis.The figures in this painting seem to have been placed in
their place. Usually when painting religious subjects, artists put Jesus in the forefront, 3 but
Caravaggio did not do that in this painting. He places Jesus at the very edge of the picture, where
the light is darkest, and a bright light shines through the wall directly on Matthew's face, as if this
is a symbol of God's direct calling to the world. The hand of Jesus occupies a prominent position
in the picture, with the shadow set off, very prominent. The arrangement of this hand points to
the theme of "calling" (also called) and draws our attention to Matthew. Sitting Matthew pointed
his finger at himself as if to ask: Is it me? The young soldier, who was between Jesus and

1
Caravaggio, Italiano: Vocazione Di San Matteo,1599,painting,Prayer Room of St. Louis, Rome.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Calling_of_Saint_Matthew-Caravaggo_(1599-1600).jpg.
2
Erwin Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Art ,trans.Zhiqiang Fu (Liaoning People’s Publishing House, 1987)，48
3
China Academy of Art,“Art history classic works appreciation series,”Zhihu,March
23,2022,https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/486066812?utm_id=0
Matthew, turned his body and looked at the two uninvited visitors with alarm, as if he were
observing the visitor again. The young man in the feathered hat also looked at Christ in
amazement, while the two men on Matthew's right bowed their heads and paid no attention.
These treatments constitute a strong dramatic conflict, strengthen the sense of rhythm of the
relationship between the characters, and make the picture more elusive and unpredictable.

The second level of graphic analysis shows iconography4 that images in works of art are often
inseparably linked to themes in a particular culture. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the
apostle Matthew was originally a tax collector who was hated because he collected taxes for the
government. The Bible warns that "He who knows that his own deeds are vile and despised is
better than the Pharisee who is hypocritical." Therefore, Jesus decided to choose one of the
spurned people to be his disciple, so he chose Matthew. This is a picture of Jesus going to call
Matthew.

In the late 16th century, the mainstream of Roman art was academic, and the themes of painting
were mostly religious themes and biblical stories. Painters would beautify and modify the figures
in their paintings in order to win the favor of patrons, and this style was indeed popular with the
upper society at that time. Caravaggio broke this trend by arguing that the Virgin Mary, Christ,
and the saints were all from the lower strata of society. This is indeed the case in his paintings,
but the characters in his works are all very real expressions and reactions of ordinary people. The
Jesus or the Madonna in his paintings are all ordinary people, and some of them are even created
by models with humble status and social contempt, full of humanity.

The third level is symbolic meaning5, which only explains the deeper inner meaning and content
of the work.In The Calling of St. Matthew, Caravaggio drew inspiration from his own real life. He
abandoned the beautification of apostles and Jesus in traditional religious paintings, and put the
lower-level figures of his contemporaries who could only be expressed in genre paintings into the
themes of religious paintings. He changed the classical practice of deifying people in the past,

4
Panofsky,Meaning in the Visual Art ,48
5
Panofsky,Meaning in the Visual Art ,48
and he made them deified.In the painting, Caravaggio did not use the usual elements of angels,
sky clouds and so on to heighten the sacred atmosphere, but placed the scene in a darkened
room, and extremely cleverly used a beam of light along the hand of Jesus to guide the
audience's eyes, so that people feel the "moment of calling." The strong light in the picture
echoes Matthew, and the hand signal calling Matthew is the most moving and core part of the
picture, so the light above the hand also becomes the light of faith. From this moment on,
Matthew is no longer a guilty tax collector, he becomes a disciple of Jesus, and all this just
happens in a moment of mutual induction between Jesus and Matthew. No one else in the
picture is aware of it, a dramatic contrast.Looking back at Caravaggio's life, his works are
inseparable from his genius creation and wild and unrestrained character. It is his extreme
character that also creates the extreme treatment and effect of his art. He does not choose a safe
classical style, but draws inspiration from the reality of his life, especially in the bottom society.
Although Caravaggio could not be said to have been the first painter to depict the underclass, his
use of these underclass figures in religious paintings was a bold rebellion that not only inspired
anger but also made him.

In fact, looking at this work from a visual analysis, I can feel the emotions of the characters from
the surface, such as the surprise of Matthew,the curiosity and indifference of the soldiers, and
also feel the strong contrast of light and shade. The beam of intensification in the picture is the
lifelike image of the characters and the environment, and I can know the visual focus through the
painting and feel the scene full of dramatic conflicts. But compare that to iconography. Visual
analysis can only achieve the effect of simple analysis. Through iconography, I can combine the
culture of The Times and the historical background of the picture content to understand the
deeper meaning. For example, Caravaggio's paintings lead the content of the Bible to
secularization, and he uses real people as models, with strong colors, large areas of shadows,
strong light penetration and fierce conflicts. It had an important influence on the formation of
Baroque painting, and also had a profound influence on later European painting.

Bibliography

Caravaggio,Italiano: Vocazione Di San Matteo,1599,painting,Prayer Room of

St.Louis, Rome.
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Calling_of_Saint_Matthew-

Caravaggo_(1599-1600).jpg.

China Academy of Art. “Art History Classic Works Appreciation Series.” Zhihu,

March 23, 2022. https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/486066812?utm_id=0.

Panofsky, Erwin. Meaning in the Visual Art. Translated by Zhiqiang Fu. Liaoning

People’s Publishing House, 1987.