Pope Francis loved Caravaggio. He was his favorite painter and thus appeared referred to numerous chronicles. One of the times he was seen praying last year was in front of the Madonna de Loreto which is found in the Basilica of Sant’Agostino in Rome and that was composed of the artist around 1604. A painting that also did not bring him few problems: The model that makes a virgin was a prostitute -Ustual at Caravaggio- called Lena. It was full time of counterreform and the painter took all the criticisms of the world. But there follows the painting. And under the compassionate look of a Pope.
It was also said that his Milanés’ favorite painting was The vocation of San Mateoprepared in 1599 for the Calyli Chapel of the Church of San Luis de los French in Rome and where it also continues. In it you can see the chiaroscuro of the painter that made him so enormously popular even in life. And how he naturalized the figures and sacred stories. The American writer Super He wrote this weekend in the Financial Times A beautiful column about the relationship between the Pope and the art in which it precisely pointed to the importance of this game of lights: It was the transforming light of the redemption that could touch us all. That is, we could all be touched by divine grace. We are all safe. That was what Francisco believed, Okoro said, and that’s why he loved this canvas.
It is a beautiful story that Caravaggio tells in him. Is inspired by the Gospel according to St. Matthewbut he moves her to the tavern, which they liked so much. There is a great table and several are sitting on it Tax collectorsamong them Matthew, counting the coins. Everyone is dressed in the clothes of the painter’s time, something he also liked. On the right you see how Jesus and San Pedro arrive and the first points to one of the collectors (Matthew) who puts his hand to the chest as saying, “Do you mean me? Why me?” Two others are counting the money and the rest look at visitors with some stupor. The writer Okoro points out that it is at that time when Jesus is offering Matthew to change his life. A complex vital moment: when they offer you the opportunity and you see it or not. Okoro also insisted that you have to have a special sensitivity to art to capture that. And Francisco seemed to have her. It was the painting in which he thought when he was chosen Pope: “Do you mean me? Why me?”
This canvas are accompanied in San Luis de los French others two more from Caravaggio. It is the only Roman Church with three Milanés works. It’s about The martyrdom of San Mateo (1600) in which the saint is seen at the foot of his executioner and San Mateo’s inspiration (1602). Although this is its second version; The first was censored as an improper: it looked at A very little holy San Matthew and with an angel of a certain ambiguity pointing to him how he had to write with one hand about that of the saint. The painting was a nobleman, but disappeared centuries later in Berlin in a bombing during World War II. This would be another great story to tell.
It is a picture that shows the transforming light of the redemption that could touch us all. We could all be touched by divine grace
But returning to The vocation of San Mateo This was a picture so venerated by Francisco that, according to Rome Reportsthe news agency of the Pope and the Vatican, was made a copy that transferred to the Santa Marta house, Building adjacent to the Basilica of San Pedro where the Pope resided and where he died. And now the canvas will witness a remarkable coincidence. Santa Marta has 129 rooms, of which 106 are suites, 22 double rooms and an apartment and This is where the cardinals are housed these days For the conclave. There will be gathered and those hidden negotiations will be produced before the Caravaggneze look. And from there the chosen one will come out, as Jesus did with Matthew: “Do you mean me? Why me?”
