The Calling of Saint Matthew
A year-long project from February 2021 - 2022, this reconstruction of Caravaggio’s The Calling of Saint Matthew was an intensive immersion into the work of the baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. After months of research into Caravaggio’s methods and materials, including close examinations of his paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art and in San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, I proceeded to develop the painting from the ground up: stretching linen, sizing and priming it with historical materials, and building the painting layer by layer. The result is more than a copy of the painting as it appears to the naked eye, as it retains the integrity of the indirect process employed by Caravaggio to create his dramatic painting depicting the moment when Jesus called Matthew to become His disciple (Mt 9:9).