St. Matthew by X Ray

In Milan last year, Art Critic Lionello Venturi paused before The Martyrdom of St. Matthew, famed masterpiece of 17th century Michelangelo da Caravaggio. Venturi had seen the painting often before in Rome's dimly lit church of San Luigi dei Francesi. But this time, aided by the strong artificial light of the Milan gallery, where it was on loan, he thought he saw a vague overlapping of paint surfaces around the fallen figure of St. Matthew. He persuaded government art authorities to X-ray the canvas.

Three months and 96 X-ray pictures later, the experts were able to assemble what looked at first glance like a chaotic triple exposure. Studied closely, the pictures showed that Caravaggio had unmistakably started two earlier versions of his famous painting on the same canvas, and covered them over. The experts isolated parts of ten figures, deduced which of them belonged to each version, and filled them out in painstaking sketches. In a pamphlet published last week, Critic Venturi reported the findings.

The different versions make up a movie-like sequence of St. Matthew's assassination* by a hulking swordsman. In the first, the saint is on his feet, his hand raised against the sword. In the second (though his body does not appear), the position of the saint's head shows him kneeling or falling. In the version the world knows, St. Matthew lies sprawled on the ground, while the swordsman, straddling his body, prepares for the coup de grace.

The versions are as different in mood and style as they are in composition. In No.1, says Critic Venturi, "everything is realized in the spirit of the characters rather than in the demonstration of the event." But in Nos. 2 and 3, Painter Caravaggio was clearly trying to stress dramatic, physical movement--a concession, says Venturi, to the classicist critics of his day.

One peculiarity of style revealed by the X-ray pictures: Caravaggio never bothered sketching in his figures before painting them; he worked directly with oils. The presence in the early versions of a few headless ears indicates that Caravaggio probably started with an ear when painting heads, using it as a guide in developing the proportions of the rest of the body.

Armed with so much valuable information, the experts must let the final version of the painting hang in the Rome church as it has for 350 years. The brushwork on the canvas is so intimately overlapped, they explained, that it would be impossible to lay bare the early layers without sacrificing the surface.

* Legend variously attributes Matthew's death to fire, stoning and the sword. The exact circumstances are unknown.

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