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Saint Matthew and the Angel by Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo

Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo · 1530-01-01

This is Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo's 'Saint Matthew and the Angel,' painted around 1530 and now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is one of his celebrated nocturnes, a night scene built from candlelight and deep shadow, and it holds a literal secret beneath its surface.

X-ray photography has revealed a drawing of a female figure on the right half of the canvas, completely overpainted by Savoldo himself. You would never know she was there. In her place, we get Matthew in his pink robe, leaning into the darkness as an angel whispers the Gospel into his ear.

Savoldo was a High Renaissance painter active mostly in Venice, and he was highly regarded in his own lifetime. After his death, many of his roughly 40 known works were assigned to more famous names like Giorgione. His real influence, however, runs forward to the young Caravaggio, who saw Savoldo's radical chiaroscuro and ran with it into the Roman streets.

This painting is a ghost story, a masterclass in light, and a missing link. The erased woman is still there, invisible, right where you are looking.

Details

Beneath the dark background, hidden for centuries: another figure.
Beneath the dark background, hidden for centuries: another figure.
No one knows why he erased her.
No one knows why he erased her.
Instead, he gave us Matthew, listening in the dark.
Instead, he gave us Matthew, listening in the dark.
And light so dramatic it taught Caravaggio how to see.
And light so dramatic it taught Caravaggio how to see.
The evangelist's downward gaze and furrowed brow convey deep concentration , a rare moment of divine inspiration rendered with intimate psychological weight.
The evangelist's downward gaze and furrowed brow convey deep concentration , a rare moment of divine inspiration rendered with intimate psychological weight.
Transcript

X-rays of this painting revealed a secret. Beneath the dark background, hidden for centuries: another figure. A woman. Painted over by the artist himself. No one knows why he erased her. Instead, he gave us Matthew, listening in the dark. And light so dramatic it taught Caravaggio how to see.