One of the most important aspects of baroque art was consideration of the emotional experience of those who would view it. This was of great concern to Michelangelo Merisi who was known as an artist by the name of Caravaggio, the northern Italian town of his birth. He invented an innovative new technique, called tenebrism that was an exaggeration of chiaroscuro, a technique used by many artists of the time using slight variations of light and dark. Caravaggio was a master at using light to create an intense dramatic effect on the viewer, and his influence is apparent in the work of one of his most important followers, Artemisia Gentileschi. .
"The Calling of Saint Matthew" was Caravaggio's first considerable commission after he moved to Rome. It was to be displayed in the Contarelli Chapel in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi thanks to his influential friend Cardinal Del Monte. As a result of this commission, the approach to religious subjects Caravaggio displayed were impressive and unique. A dramatic shaft of light floods in, emanating from an unseen source, falling directly onto Levi and his associates counting money at the table. While the sinners at the table are dressed as though they just walked off the street in Caravaggio's time, Christ and Saint Peter are dressed in clothing of their time. Replicating the contrast in clothing, the composition is also composed of a horizontal rectangle on the left contrasting with a vertical triangle on the right. They are separated by the space between them and their clothing, but also connected by Christ's hand as he points at Matthew in the same manner as Adam's hand in Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" in the Sistine Chapel. Caravaggio's dramatic use of light is symbolic of Matthew's miraculous transformation and spiritual rebirth, just as the darkness symbolizes the lack of spiritual rebirth, or blindness to Christ, of his associates sitting at the table with him.