Two-thirds

For the first time since February, four of the six members of the Superlative Walks team met, for a socially-distanced six mile walk in the hills above Wardle. Pictured are (l-r) Martin, Bonnie and Andy.  Chris and Bruce sent apologies. We found some paths none of us had ever walked before and one or two potential desirable residences.

1600 was a special holy year for Pope Clement VIII, with plans for a year of religious fervour, pilgrimage and absolution for some sinners - such as Caravaggio.  He was rewarded with a major commission to decorate the walls of a French church in Rome - San Luigi Dei Francesci. His task was to create two large paintings of St Matthew, to specifications set by a French cardinal Mathieu Cointrel.

The larger work was to be The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, showing the slaughter of the Saint on the instruction of the king of Ethiopia.  Caravaggio was at first daunted by the scale and complexity of this, with its swirling complex action and dramatic characters. A self-portrait of the painter is in semi-darkness just to the left of the assassin.

To cope with that challenge, he first painted the accompanying work The Calling of Saint Matthew, a more intimate picture, in a style with which Caravggio was accustomed. A group of men and boys, in a dingy bar, counting their money.  Christ arrived, on the right of the picture, almost hidden by St Peter, summoning St Matthew with a pointed finger, highly similar to the finger of God in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. Matthew responds with an expression that clearly asks "who, me?"  I find the Calling more interesting than the Martyrdom but then I don't really have to make a choice. Both are magnificent.