Gesture in Painting: Problems in Semiology

In February 1 602, Caravaggio was commissioned to paint a large picture of Saint Matthew and the Angel for the altar of the Contarelli Chapel. Upon delivery a few months later, the work was refused 'con dire che quella figura non haveva decoro ne aspetto di Santo' ('they said that that figure had neither the dignity nor the bearing of a saint'). ^ A new, slightly taller picture was hastily completed and installed over the altar by the end of the year. The first painting was destroyed in Berlin in 1 945, the second still hangs in the chapel. A comparison of these two works offers an occasion that could hardly be considered more favourable for understanding one particular artist's passage fi-om an intimate, familiar style to a formal one. In fact, the gulf between the two compositions has frequently been discussed in this context, but the comparison is equally useful for illustrating the importance of gesture in the organization of the two images and for delineating the problem or the range of problems that bring us together today. In the first picture (fig. 1), the angel, pressed against Matthew, guides the hand of the Evangelist. The focal point of the image is furnished by the encounter ofthe two hands on the book (written with exceptional care