It all started with patronage. Caravaggio had already been living in the city on the Tiber for a few years, but was known to only a group of admirers of art, who commissioned small paintings from him to decorate their own palaces. Both they, as well as the artist himself knew that real success can only be achieved through great and multiple figure paintings, destined for church interiors. And finally in 1599 thanks to the intercession of Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, an opportunity presented itself to Caravaggio. This was a commission received from the executors of the will of Cardinal Matteo Contarelli. In the national church of the French, the San Luigi dei Francesi (St. Louis King of France), the cardinal had bought a small chapel in 1565, which however, he did not manage to decorate during his life. This task was taken over by a group of clergymen – executors of his will, who after several attempts at working with various artists, finally turned to a well-known, but still undervalued Caravaggio. For a painter, who had little previous experience in creating multiple figure scenes, it was quite a challenge. He had to take into account the opinions of his clients, and for an unruly artist who did not take criticism too well, this was no easy task. Apart from that, before his death the cardinal had very precisely specified what the paintings should contain. In addition, due to small cubature of the room, the two side paintings had to be thought-out in such a way so as they could be admired from the sides. The artist decided to paint on canvas – frescoes which were the customary decorations of these types of structures, limited the possibilities of corrections and making changes – a painter who was unskilled in such a technique most likely feared such a challenge.

One of the paintings in the chapel depicts the moment of the calling of Matthew into the group of Christ’s followers, the second – his martyrdom, the third (middle) – the evangelist himself, namesake of the deceased. In this way Caravaggio, represented Matthew in three poses – as a heartless tax collector, a mature apostle, and a witness of the holiness of Christ, concentrated on writing down his life, as well as a martyr giving his life for the faith. The painter began with The Martyrdom of St. Matthew – the most difficult scene, dynamic and developed and immediately he encountered some problems. X-ray images of the painting show multiple repaintings and numerous corrections. Caravaggio left it unfinished for the time being and decided to deal with the second scene – The Calling of St. Matthew, which was to be on the opposite wall. This work was an immediate success. This was felt by both the clients and the artist. This is one of the most moving scenes in the history of painting in general. Until then nobody had been able to give sanctity such a human and earthly dimension. After finishing the canvas, Caravaggio returned to the previously abandoned Martyrdom. This time he knew how to complete the whole. He enlarged the figures, reduced the developed part of architecture, increased the dynamism of the scene and filled it with strong chiaroscuro. If that was not enough, the chapel which had until now emanated silence, in a masterful way captured with a scene of silent, taking place only with the use of gestures Calling of St. Matthew, was suddenly filled with a scream of a boy – the witness of the death of the evangelist. A sort of a signature, but also a confirmation of being pleased with his own work, is the figure of Caravaggio himself, shown in the background of the painting (on the left).

The canvases attracted with their persistence, inner strength and theatrical lighting. As their creator, at that moment, Caravaggio became a proponent of the whole movement of the poor, established in Rome by Philip of Neri, who in the poor and in beggars, but also in sinners, saw potential saints, who walk on the streets or spend time in city alleys, just as Matthew did. Apart from few exceptions, of jealous artists-competitors the paintings were looked upon favorably, grounding the significance and fame of Caravaggio in the Roman artistic community, which he could not take advantage of, since his violent temper got in the way.

The only thing left to do was, the last, smallest and – it would seem – easy to complete painting, destined for the main altar of the chapel, which was to show the apostle Matthew writing the Gospel. Caravaggio showed an almost bald man, with plebeian features, coarse and primitive, barefoot, with dirty feet and stringy hands. There is no need to add, that an image of such a Matthew was far removed from any similar ones, created up to then. An angel, the second protagonist of this painting, in a fainting pose leaning on the apostle’s arm, delicately touches his palm with his fingers. The scene neither garnered admiration, nor was it accepted by the clergymen. And it was not only about the evangelist’s dirty feet visible directly above the altar, but also about the angel shown in a sleepy pose yet at the same time erotic, which is so well-known to us from the painter’s previous works. He was more reminiscent of cupid than of a divine messenger. The artist’s intention was not quite understood, or perhaps it was too revolutionary. It depicted a simple tax collector, unskilled in the written word, who is creating the first Gospel, under the influence of a miraculous enlightenment – a divine emanation. It takes place through this slightly bored angel, who provides Matthew with the ability to see the past and directs his hand. In this way Caravaggio desired to show, a contemporary, faithful of the Roman Catholic Church, a miracle, which was the writing of one of the most important books of the New Testament. The painting was however, decisively discarded – it was not “saintly” enough and insufficiently representative. In its place the artist painted another (1603), more elegant and fitting the status of the place, in which it can be admired today. However, even here, despite the fact that the distance between the angel and the evangelist was preserved, the plebeian features of the latter less pronounced, the feet washed, while he himself appears to be someone who can skillfully write down the life of his teacher, Caravaggio showed the angel in an aerial somersault, in which he seems to be counting on the fingers of his hand, the most important things, which a disciple of Christ should remember.

We may ask ourselves, what happened to the initial, rejected altarpiece. It was bought by the other, besides cardinal del Monte, admirer of Caravaggio’s talent – Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani, while the descendants of the family sold it. Ultimately it ended up in the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum (present-day Bode Museum) in Berlin, where along with other paintings of the artist, at the beginning of 1945 it was destroyed in a fire. Some hope that the paintings remained intact, while the fire was staged by the Russians who took the paintings from Germany.

Until recently, this rejected painting could have only been admired on black and white photographs. However, after five hundered years it was reborn anew: its copy was created by a Finnish painter Antero Kahila. In documents from the museum, there was information regarding painting colors (dark-olive green, chestnut brown, bright red), while numerous years of study on the works of Caravaggio assured the artist that his creation was not far removed from the original. The canvas can today be seen in the main altar of a Berlin Church of St. Matthew, not far from the museum where the original was once located. And today it also fills us with reverie, while the question, of how Caravaggio came up with the idea of painting such a scene in such a prestigious location, still begs answering. Perhaps the answer can be found entirely somewhere else. As Sybille Ebert-Schifferer claims, this painting was a sort of a provisional stage. It was put up in May of 1599 in the main altar of the unfinished chapel, which at that time only had the vault decorated, with frescoes of Giuseppe Cesari (Cavaliere d’Arpino). Thanks to him, masses for the soul of the cardinal, who had died fourteen years prior, could take place. In 1603, the canvas was changed to the one that hangs there today. Some researchers, such as Thomas Schauerte even claim, that the “Berlin” painting of Caravaggio was never destined for the chapel of cardinal Contarelli. It was ordered for the private collection of the aforementioned proponent of the talent of the master of chiaroscuro – marchese Giustiniani, who lived opposite the church, and commissioned a similar paiting from other valued artists of the time (Guido Reni, Domenichino). This Saint Matthew – of which the size made it unfit for the chapel interior, bereft of a proper perspective (painted from the top down, not bottom up), and besides that bold in its message, while without the valued under those circumstances distinction (decorum) – simply could not be placed in the altar of a chapel, but it certainly could become a decoration of an art gallery of an ambitious collector, who appreciated true art. Perhaps, he only lent it out for a short period of time and picked it up when a painting destined for the chapel was ready.

Therefore, we can see that although the painting was lost, it still stimulates the imagination of researchers, while its fate awaits explanation.