Tenebrism is the common factor between Caravaggio's Calling of Saint Matthew and Rembrandt's The Night Watch. The both use the dramatic difference between light and darkness to impact the important subjects of the paintings.
The Calling of Saint Matthew, located in Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome is a baroque painting illustrating the moment Jesus Christ calls Matthew to service. This painting shows us a modern environment, a dark and gloomy room where greed and self fulfillment are taking place. These men are counting money that history indicates has not been acquired in a legal or honorable manner. Here amidst all of this corruption and filth, Jesus Christ stands calling a lowly tax collector to his side. Christ is younger and noble in this painting almost hidden in the shadows. His gesture is more delicate and reminds us of Adam pointing to God in The Creation of Adam. This carries the theme of personal atonement and rebirth. Matthew is being given the chance to wipe his slate clean and be reborn as a new man. We see Matthew pointing to himself, shocked that Jesus is calling him. His facial expression illustrates the…show more content… The environment in this painting is one of the militia preparing to move. The men in this painting are loading weapons, firing weapons, cleaning weapons. In the sea of men preparing their weapons, we see a girl that has a dead chicken hanging from her belt. The feet of the chicken are the focus. This is they symbol for this particular militia and their namesake. Rembrandt uses the light to illustrate which men are most important in this painting. The two men in the foreground are well light and the center of the painting. Just like in Caravaggio's The Calling of Saint Matthew, we see a moment frozen in time. This moment is focused around an everyday life event, a reality versus something
