Cappella Contarelli (San Luigi dei Francesi)

Inside San Luigi dei Francesi, the Contarelli Chapel houses Caravaggio's three monumental paintings of the life of Saint Matthew (1599-1600 and 1602): The Calling, The Inspiration, and The Martyrdom. The Calling — where Christ's pointing finger (echoing Michelangelo's Creation of Adam) summons the tax collector Matthew from a darkened room — is one of the most influential paintings in Western art and effectively launched the Baroque. The original first version of The Inspiration was rejected by the church for showing Matthew as too rough and uneducated; the current sanitised version is the second attempt.