# The Calling of St Matthew [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [TERBRUGGHEN, Hendrick]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 152 x 195 cm ## Commentary Hendrick Terbrugghen made a long trip to Italy to study the region's art and antiquities coming to light. He returned to Utrecht in 1614, inspired and strongly influenced by the work of Caravaggio, which he had seen in Rome and possibly in Naples. In the years that followed he emerged as the most gifted and original of the Dutch Caravaggists. The present painting depicts the episode recounted by Luke \(5:27-29\). The composition, in reverse, is based directly on <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/c/caravagg/04/23conta.html'\)" href="/html/c/caravagg/04/23conta.html">Caravaggio's painting</a> in the Contarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. Terbrugghen returned to this subject in 1621. In this version he moves the figures closer to the picture plane, presenting them not full but half-length, and reducing their number from eight to six. ## Related artworks - [A Laughing Bravo with a Bass Viol and a Glass]() - [Bagpipe Player]() - [Boy Lighting a Pipe from a Candle]() - [Boy Playing a Fife]() - [Boy Playing a Recorder]() - [Christ Crowned with Thorns]() - [Democritus]() - [Duet]() - [Esau Selling His Birthright]() - [Esau Selling His Birthright]() - [Girl Holding a Tankard and a Glass]() - [Heraclitus]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()