The painting was to be completed by May 23 of the same year, in time for Pentecost. So on February 7, 1602, Caravaggio signed a contract for 150 scudi to paint an altarpiece of a seated Saint Matthew receiving divine inspiration from an angel. Matthew for the chapel’s altar was finally installed and abruptly removed less than a month later, he was the first choice to create the new replacement. His paintings were so well received that two years later, when Flemish artist Jacques Cobaert’s unfinished sculpture of St. The Contarelli Chapel was the spark that ignited the light of Caravaggio’s career. Caravaggio’s reputation was set and he developed into the most sought after artist in Rome. Matthew and The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew his artistic genius became infamous. Nearly a year later, Caravaggio finished the two paintings, The Calling of St. A contract was signed on Jfor a price of 400 scudi and Caravaggio promised to deliver two monumental paintings. As a relative unknown artist who had yet to prove himself publicly, Caravaggio was approached by Virgilio Crescenzi, the heir of the deceased Cardinalate Contarelli, to paint two lateral narrative scenes on Saint Matthew for the chapel.
Named after its patron, Cardinalate Matteo Contarelli, the chapel had a tumultuous history filled with a deceased patron, involvement of the papacy, lawsuits and several artists leaving incomplete works in the forty years prior to Caravaggio’s involvement. The Inspiration of Saint Matthew was painted for the Contarelli Chapel in the Roman church of San Luigi dei Francesi. Although adhering closely to traditional Biblical exegesis, Caravaggio's first Inspiration of Saint Matthew, Saint Matthew and the Angel, was rejected for failing to conjure an image that properly embodied the ideals of the Counter-Reformation. His provocative interpretation, however, was met with harsh criticisms within the Church. Baroque painter, Caravaggio, challenged the centuries old formula of depicting the divine inspiration of the Gospels, while returning to the theological importance behind capturing the Word of God. Most artistic representations of these inspirations were formulaic, until one artist provided a spark of life that shook the very foundations of the artistic tradition. For centuries, the Church has been focused on the divine origins of the holy Bible, even creating an entire artistic genre to represent the process. The Gospel: written by man through divine inspiration as the living Word of God.
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