Michelangelo, remember that he had already worked in the Contarelli chapel when the Cavalier D Arpino decorated the vault, now had the mission of adorning the side walls with his canvases. Berne-Joffroy in his "Caravaggio Report" writes that "Caravaggio must have felt very intimidated and full of a very lively desire to take advantage of this great occasion to fully affirm his strength. His state of spirit is easy to imagine. He wanted to overcome everything he had done so far.
Remember that if his previous works had earned him enough compliments, he had not lacked criticism, in particular they had reproached him for not knowing how to compose; As a result of this challenge, Caravaggio delivered "The Martyrdom of St. Matthew" and "The Vocation of St. Matthew", two magnificent canvases that inaugurated a new and controversial phase in his art and also in the history of Western painting as stated by Valerio Mariani , author of the monographic book "Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio".
If the first of the paintings where he was self-portrait for the third time in the figure of a spectator, impacted by the dramatic realism of the murder of the saint, the second scandal when choosing as a scene, a telonium, the little sacred place where the collectors of taxes collected their taxes.
But even being all this bold and provocative for his contemporaries, the greatest contribution of these two great works lay in the extraordinary treatment that Caravaggio made of light.
This, which symbolized the supernatural presence of the divinity appeared as an autonomous element in space and time and determined the narrative rhythm of the scene "The light in his paintings" states Gombrich does not make the bodies seem softer and funny, but which is hard and almost blinding in its contrasts with the deep shadows causing the whole of the strange scene to stand out with an unwavering honesty that few of his contemporaries could appreciate, but of decisive effects on later artists.
Despite the heated discussions that took place, the paintings were not only accepted by the heirs of the cardinal, who had died shortly before, but also commissioned a new canvas "San Mateo and El Angel" which however later was not pleasing to his clients who rejected them for undermining the decorum, because the saint was incarnated by a rough man and again the painter was forced to make a second version.
While working for the Contarelli chapel, Cardinal Tiberio Cesari made another important assignment; two canvases to decorate his chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo. Caravaggio undertook the realization of "The Fall of Saul" and "The Crucifixion of St. Peter", it seems that the Lombard painter also had to execute new versions of these works because of his lack of circumspection.
To these two important commissions were added another two of no less importance as "The Virgin of Loreto" for the church of San Agustin and "The Virgin of the Palafreneros", commissioned by the brotherhood of the Pope's Palafreneros for the Vatican Basilica.
In any case Caravaggio enjoyed then fame and prestige but the scandal accompanied him permanently. The death of the virgin was rejected by the Carmelites of Santa Maria della Scala despite the intermediation of the Marques de Guistiniani, because Caravaggio again lacked decency by placing the scene in the framework of a humble dwelling and using a prostitute as a model of The virgin
Other works of the same period, such as "Victorious Love" reflected his attraction to the abyss. The painting portrayed a shameless teenager, probably a homosexual prostitute, who tramples on the symbols of power and knowledge, Caravaggio could no longer contain his fury and it was time for the final break with the Vatican.
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