The Contarelli Chapel is located within the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. It is famous for housing three paintings on the theme of Saint Matthew the Evangelist by the Baroque master Caravaggio. The chapel commemorates the French cardinal Matthieu Cointrel.
On his death in 1585 the French cardinal, Matthieu Cointrel (Contarelli in Italian), left an endowment and instructions for the decoration of the chapel, first one to the left of th...
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The Contarelli Chapel is located within the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. It is famous for housing three paintings on the theme of Saint Matthew the Evangelist by the Baroque master Caravaggio. The chapel commemorates the French cardinal Matthieu Cointrel.
On his death in 1585 the French cardinal, Matthieu Cointrel (Contarelli in Italian), left an endowment and instructions for the decoration of the chapel, first one to the left of the apse, which he had purchased within San Luigi dei Francesi ("Saint Louis of the French"), the church of the French community in Rome. The cardinal was rich—he had already paid for part of the construction of the church facade and put a large sum towards the high altar—and he specified that his chapel be decorated with scenes from the life of his name-saint, Matthew the Evangelist.
Cointrel's executor, Virglio Cresenzi, commissioned a Flemish sculptor, Jacques Cobaert, to make a marble statue of Matthew and an angel for the altar. Giuseppe...
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