The Story
The Calling of Saint Matthew by Giovanni Battista Caracciolo. Purchase, The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund Gift, 2016
Created in 1630 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the religion & mythology tradition. Giovanni Battista Caracciolo worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in Oil on canvas, measuring 51 3/8 × 61 1/2 in. (130.5 × 156.2 cm), the surface rewards close looking. Giovanni Battista Caracciolo builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
