In Rome, near Piazza Navona, one of the most beautiful places of worship in the capital, the national church of the French of Rome since 1589, houses three paintings by Caravaggio dedicated to Saint Matthew, his first public commission.

The French National Church, founded by Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, who later became Pope Clement VII, in 1518, was completed in 1589 by Domenico Fontana, based on a design by Giacomo Della Porta, thanks to the generosity of Caterina de’ Medici, niece of the future pope, and is also famous because you can see the first important public commission received by Caravaggio.

The decorations of the Church are a tribute to France through the representation of its saints and its greatest historical figures, as in the statues of Pierre Lestache (1758) depicting Charlemagne, Saint Louis, Saint Clotilde and Saint Joan of Valois on the facade, while the large altarpiece, oil on canvas depicting Saint Louis, was created in the 17th century by the Roman Plautilla Bricci, known for being the only female architect of the pre-industrial era.

I borrow bodies and objects, I paint them to remind myself of the magic of balance that governs the entire universe. In this magic my soul resonates with the One Sound that brings me back to God. (Caravaggio)

The interior has 3 naves, with 5 chapels on each side, of which the second of the right nave is dedicated to Saint Cecilia and houses the frescoes with the stories of the life of the saint, the work of Domenichino, and the altarpiece of Saint Cecilia by Guido Reni.

At the end of the left nave, there is the famous Matteo Contarelli Chapel, from the Italianized name of the French cardinal Mathieu Cointrel who had requested that works dedicated to his namesake Saint Matthew be created for his chapel.

It is precisely for this chapel that Caravaggio undertakes his first public commission of great prestige thanks to one of his initial admirers, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte (who among the artist’s first works purchased the famous I Bari), who named Caravaggio for this important work for which the artist creates two large canvases, the Vocation and the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, made between 1599 and 1602.

In 1602, with a new contract, Caravaggio is called to paint a third painting intended for the altar of the Contarelli Chapel, Saint Matthew and the Angel.

The Church of San Luigi dei Francesi contains many other treasures such as the splendid organ, built by Joseph Merklin in 1881, and several tombs, including those of Pauline de Beaumont, built by her lover François-René de Chateaubriand, of Cardinal François Joachin de Bernis, ambassador of Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, and of Frédéric Bastiat, a 19th-century liberal economist and writer.

The Secret

The first version of St. Matthew and the Angel, purchased by Vincenzo Giustiniani, passed to the Berlin Museums in 1815 and was destroyed towards the end of the Second World War in the fire of the Flakturm Friedrichshain.

Useful Info

Chiesa di San Luigi dei Francesi
Piazza di S. Luigi de’ Francesi
00186 Roma

Free entrance