Art Trip to Rome

Rome is a marvel, a city where the traveler can “dig” down and witness the ruins of the pagan world in one moment, and then lift your eyes to the relics of Christendom layered and jumbled everywhere above. Capital of the ancient Roman Empire, seat of the Catholic papacy, capital of modern-day Italy, this city pulses with the energy of thousands of years of human art, power and faith. 

The best way for the traveler to see Rome is to walk and walk, taking in its street life, ruins, churches and fountains at every turn. This is an outside city, so that I don't recommend cloistering yourself in enormous, yawning museums. Instead, the living museum is all around you.  At the same time, Rome is a fairly large city with some noisy, unpleasant districts polluted by world-famous traffic. The trick is to know what to see -- after all, its treasures could keep a traveler busy for years. Wander over cobblestone streets, into neighborhood squares and churches, underground to tombs and ruins, and above the city to enjoy its incomparable views. If there is such a thing as an art “thrill ride,” this is it.

 Caravaggio, Chapel of St. Matthew, San Luigi dei Francesci

In the neighborhood of Piazza Navona stands a rather bland looking church easily overlooked, but inside is a chapel decorated with revolutionary religious paintings by the seventeenth-century artist Caravaggio. The church is San Luigi dei Francesi, the French national church in Rome. The paintings were commissioned by cardinal Matteu Cointrel in 1599, and depict scenes from the life of his patron saint, Matthew. Caravaggio's canvases hang in deep shadows in the last chapel on the left, and a lightbox will allow you to rake light across them. This system fits well with artist's own painting style, which was stark in its effects of light and darkness.


Look first to your left, to the canvas that depicts the Calling of St. Matthew. The scene is based on a short passage from the Bible: “Jesus saw a man called Matthew at the tax office; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.' And he rose and followed him.” (Matthew 9:9) To the far right Jesus appears, stretching out a languid hand towards a surprised Matthew. Note how Caravaggio has placed Jesus entirely in darkness, yet illuminated as if from within. Matthew, seated amidst the company of tax collectors, points to himself as if to double-check, “Do you mean me?” In contrast, the man at the far end of the table takes no note of the spiritual presence that has filled the room, and instead sits intently hunched over his coins counting every last one. Caravaggio's interpretation of the subject is uncompromising: Matthew is depicted as unaware of the significance of his calling, a man accustomed to money-counting and pettiness now face to face with the holy person of Jesus.


Directly in front is St. Matthew and the Angel. The Gospel of St. Matthew was believed the first written and therefore to be a transcription of the word of God. The angel, swooping down from above, enumerates on his fingers the precise points to be made. This painting was actually Caravaggio's second version of the subject, as the first was rejected by church authorities immediately after its completion. In the earlier version, the artist depicted Matthew as an old Italian peasant with his bare feet awkwardly thrust out at the viewer and an angel guiding his illiterate hand. The painting expressed the simplicity of the early disciples of Christ, but apparently too much so for the proud men who ruled the church is seventeenth-century Rome . The second version is more dignified in its presentation of the saint, who looks at least as if he knows how to hold a pen! Observe how one of the legs of the footstool appears to tip out of the picture plane and into our physical space: Caravaggio was a master of such artistic devices, so that his paintings have an immediacy that can be startling.


The final picture in the chapel, The Martyrdom of St. Matthew , was the first painted and is less artistically innovative. But if you find yourself fascinated by this unconventional, sometimes unsettling artist, be sure to see his other masterpieces in the churches of Santa Maria del Popolo and Sant'Agostino, and in the Galleria Borghese and Pinacoteca at the Vatican.