San Matteo is the subject of a painting made in 1602 by the Italian painter Caravaggio. It is kept in Rome in the Contarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi.The first version of the painting, purchased by Vincenzo Giustiniani, passed to the Museums of Berlin in 1815 and was destroyed towards the end of the Second World War in the fire of the Flakturm Friedrichshain. Two years after painting the side canvases for the Contarelli Chapel, Caravaggio was called to conclude the work by also painting the central altarpiece depicting St. Matthew and the Angel, to be placed above the altar of the Contarelli Chapel and which followed the two side commissions of the Vocation of St. Matthew and the Martyrdom of St. Matthew. The current version came after the first version that was rejected because St. Matthew was seen with the appearance of an almost illiterate people, to whom the angel directed his hand to make him write. In the current version, in fact, the saint writes alone, while the angel gives him some suggestions.
