MonstranceMonstranceEditions
The Calling of St Matthew by Caravaggio, 1599–1600, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome

Size
Beside

The sheet at its true proportions, the rule and the doorway at the same scale. The painting is printed whole; where its shape differs from the sheet, the print has a paper border, drawn here.

Saints

The Calling of St Matthew

1599–1600 · Saint-Louis-des-Français / San Luigi dei Francesi, Roma

For Saint Matthew · 21 September

18×24 in · $140 · unframed, shipping included

Sizes

image 16.5×17 in on a 18×24 in sheet

What is dpi?

Dots per inch: how many pixels of the museum’s file go into each inch of paper. Our floor is 240 for sheets up to 20 inches, 180 up to 36 inches and 120 beyond, because a larger print is seen from further away. We never offer a sheet below the floor, and the number on each size is the one you receive.

Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 308 gsm cotton rag · pigment inks · printed to order · sold unframed

Printed to order · the whole painting, never cropped · if it arrives damaged, we replace it

Shipping included in the price to the eight countries we ship to · dispatched in 2–4 working days · replaced if it arrives damaged, nothing to send back.

Questions before you order? Write to [email protected]. We read every message.

Send as a gift

A printed card goes in the parcel with your message and the work’s museum record. No price is shown anywhere in the parcel. Enter the recipient’s address at checkout.

0 / 240
Have a gift certificate?

The certificate’s balance is applied at checkout; any remainder is paid there. Check a balance or buy one.

All editions

About this painting

Christ's hand comes out of the dark and points across a table of coins. Irving Lavin reads it as Adam's hand from the Sistine ceiling, reversed: Christ as the New Adam. The light comes in with Christ from a source Caravaggio will not show, and Gozzano and Tosini tie it to the chapel's own window; the window he does paint lets nothing in. At the table young men in feathers and silk turn to look. Which of them is Matthew, art historians have argued since Andreas Prater in 1985, and still argue. Someone at that table is about to stand up.

Sources: Irving Lavin, "Caravaggio’s Calling of St. Matthew: The Identity of the Protagonist," in Past-Present (UC Press, 1993), 84-99 · Andreas Prater, Pantheon (1985); Jürgen Müller, Kunstgeschichte OPRJ (2021), DOI 10.5283/kuge.577 · Marco Andreacchio, 'Caravaggio's Light and the Essence of Christianity', VoegelinView, 1 January 2021 · citing Gozzano & Tosini, La cappella Contarelli in San Luigi dei Francesi

And when Jesus passed on from thence, he saw a man sitting in the custom house, named Matthew; and he saith to him: Follow me. And he arose up and followed him.

Matthew 9:9 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner)

Pray with this every day  ›
The Record
Date 1599–1600
Collection San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome
Subject Saints
Season Ordinary Time
Master 10,039 px
License PD/CC0
Attribution Saint-Louis-des-Français / San Luigi dei Francesi, Roma

The original, as its museum records it

Artist Michelangelo Merisi, dit le Caravage
Holding Saint-Louis-des-Français / San Luigi dei Francesi, Roma
Accession none — this work has never left the church it was painted for, and a work in situ carries no inventory number

Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.

The file this print is made from

Source The Calling of Saint Matthew-Caravaggo (1599-1600).jpg
Master 10,039 px on the long edge
Rights PD/CC0 — the photograph as well as the painting
At a glance
ArtistCaravaggio (Italian, 1571–1610)
Date1599–1600
MuseumSaint-Louis-des-Français / San Luigi dei Francesi, Roma
Sheet sizes18×24 in, 24×36 in, 32×48 in, 40×60 in
Provenance of the file
Held bySaint-Louis-des-Français / San Luigi dei Francesi, Roma the museum’s record
Source fileWikimedia Commons · The Calling of Saint Matthew-Caravaggo (1599-1600).jpg
LicencePublic domain
Master9,770 × 10,039 px, the file our printer receives
ChainTaken from Wikimedia Commons; held as our print master.

The sheets

18×24 in sheet 18×24 in · image 16.5×17 in · archival margin · 592 dpi
24×36 in sheet 24×36 in · image 22.1×22.7 in · archival margin · 442 dpi
32×48 in sheet 32×48 in · image 29.4×30.3 in · archival margin · 332 dpi
40×60 in sheet 40×60 in · image 36.8×37.8 in · archival margin · 265 dpi

Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 10,039 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.