ramatic situations, and with a powerful sense of immediacy. Caravaggios Death of St. Matthew is a painting in which his characteristics are represented very clearly. Many of Caravaggios works were those of religious scenes that were stories from the Bible and other scriptural readings. Matthewss death resulted from his public disapproval of the King of Ethiopia having a sexual interest for a virgin named Ephigenia. The rest of the story of the Death of St. Matthew, is explained by the words of the Golden Legend. When he heard these words, the king was consumed with rage, and went out of the church. After the Mass, the king sent a swordsman, who came behind Matthew as he stood at the altar with his hands raised to Heaven in prayer, drove a sword into his back, and consummated the apostles martyrdom (death). This story was not written into the Bible, since the Gospels were written before Matthew traveled to Ethiopia as a missionary. That being the case, the story is recounted from the book the Golden Legend. Another characteristic of Caravaggio's work was his use of light and dark. The Death of St. Matthew is dark overall, with a mysterious light source that eliminates the actual death of the Saint. This mysterious glow brings a religious feel to the painting and along with that gives the story a more powerful expression. Shadows and space are used very carefully to give a sense of immediacy to the scene. The figures around the murder all seem to be backing away from the action in different ways, which helps centralize the important part of the scene. This use of geometric placing of objects shows that he has not totally gotten away from earlier classical artistic methods. This painting also contains natural looking figures and objects, which help give some realism to the story. Grimaces on the face of Matthew, as well as the swordsman, and onlookers depict the reality of experiencing such a terrible occurrence. Flesh i...
