Oil on canvas, 322 × 340 cm, painted by Caravaggio between 1599 and 1600 for the
Contarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, his first important public
commission. It shows the moment Christ walks into the room where Matthew is
collecting taxes and points at him, while a hard beam of light crosses the scene
from a window that is not there. People still argue about which of the figures
is Matthew: the bearded man pointing at himself, or the young one bent over the
coins?
