The Calling of Saint Matthew

Possibly the most important single painting of the Baroque period. Christ calls a tax collector in a contemporary Roman tavern. A single beam of light follows Christ's outstretched hand, illuminating Matthew's astonished face: 'Me?' The invention of tenebrism transformed European painting — Velázquez studied it in Rome, Rembrandt knew it from engravings, every Baroque painter was shaped by it. Still in its original chapel. €1 coin to illuminate.