Rebuilding The Renaissance - Episode 253 - Caravaggio and the Contarelli Chapel

Episode 253 - Caravaggio and the Contarelli Chapel

11/22/23 • 19 min

Only July 23, 1599, Caravaggio signed the contract with the heirs of Cardinal Matthieu Cointerel (“Contarelli” in Italian) to produce three paintings for their family chapel in the official French church of Rome called San Luigi dei Francesi. This episode examines the history of the church, chapel and commission surrounding Caravaggio’s great paintings.

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Episode 252 - Caravaggio’s “Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” “Penitent Magdalene,” and “Judith and Holofernes”

This episode addresses three more of Caravaggio’s innovative early paintings in Rome, Italy. Each of the paintings treats conventional subjects in unconventional ways, including using well-known prostitutes as models for the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, and introducing unprecedented violence into the Judith subject.

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Episode 254 - Caravaggio’s “Martyrdom of St. Matthew”

The first of three paintings that Caravaggio painted for the Contarelli Chapel in the official French church of Rome, San Luigi dei Francesi, the “Martyrdom of St. Matthew" was the artist’s first large scale painting. It depicts the assassination of the saint and evangelist at high mass in a dramatic fashion that only Caravaggio could invent.