The Calling of St. Matthew Postcard

This is a reproduction of the “The Calling of St. Matthew” by Michelangelo Caravaggio of 1600. This was created during the height of his Roman career when he was a member of the small circle of Cardinal del Monte. He had been in Rome for nine years having come from his native Lombardy. He was twenty-nine years old when he created this oil on canvas and later that year had to flee Rome after killing a young man in a brawl. Over the next four years Caravaggio was in Malta and again in Naples. He was on his way to Rome to receive a partdon when he died mysterious in Porto Ercole, Tuscany in July, 1610. This work is one of the major masterpieces of Caravaggio. It measures 127 by 130 inches and hangs in the church of St. Francis of the French in Rome for which it was commissioned.