# San Luigi dei Francesi: Artworks and History

The National Church of France in Rome and the Contarelli Chapel of Caravaggio

Canonical HTML: https://www.livetradingnews.com/san-luigi-dei-francesi-artworks-and-history
Last modified: 2026-11-07

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By Shayne Heffernan · 2026-11-07
Tags: Caravaggio, San Luigi dei Francesi, Contarelli Chapel, Calling of Saint Matthew, Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, Inspiration of Saint Matthew, Rome, Baroque, Art history, Art break, Catholic Church, Council of Trent, Cardinal del Monte, Palazzo Madama, Factum Foundation, Domenichino, Knowledge graph
Signed: ML-DSA-87, anchored on Armature L1.
Nothing in this article is investment advice.

*An LTN art break, away from the midterm noise: one church in Rome, three paintings by Caravaggio and the history around them, with each painting linked to its full-resolution scan. The case for the art break is in **[Thoughts on Thinking: Take an Art Break](https://www.livetradingnews.com/thoughts-on-thinking-take-an-art-break)**.*

San Luigi dei Francesi, the Church of Saint Louis of the French, stands in the historic centre of Rome, [between the Pantheon and Piazza Navona](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89glise_Saint-Louis-des-Fran%C3%A7ais_de_Rome). It is [the national church of the French in Rome](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiesa_di_San_Luigi_dei_Francesi), and for more than four centuries it has carried the religious, cultural and political presence of France in papal Rome. Its walls hold late Renaissance architecture, 18th-century decoration and, above all, three of the most revolutionary paintings of the early 17th century: Caravaggio's cycle of the life of Saint Matthew in the Contarelli Chapel.

The chapel is also news. In June 2026 the Factum Foundation, working with the Pieux Établissements de la France à Rome, the French foundation that runs the church, [made the first complete high-resolution recording of the Contarelli Chapel](https://factumfoundation.org/our-projects/digitisation/digitising-the-contarelli-chapel-in-rome/). It recorded the surfaces of the three canvases [at a resolution of 25 microns, at 1:1 scale, or 1,000 dots per inch](https://factumfoundation.org/our-projects/digitisation/digitising-the-contarelli-chapel-in-rome/). The data [has not yet been made public](https://www.artribune.com/?p=1250246).

![The Contarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi: the Calling on the left wall, the Inspiration over the altar and the Martyrdom on the right.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-683a26d2913f1de4.jpg)

*The Contarelli Chapel, June 2025. Photo: Phyrexian, public domain, via **[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roma_-_San_Luigi_dei_Francesi_8289.jpg)**.*

## A French church in papal Rome

The French connection begins in 1478. That year [the French community in Rome obtained, by exchange, land near Piazza Navona held by the Abbey of Farfa](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=229276), with several small churches on it, among them a church of Santa Maria. [A bull of Pope Sixtus IV dated 2 April 1478](https://va.diplomatie.gouv.fr/presence-francaise/les-pieux-etablissements-art-et-religion) created the new French church, and the church and the French confraternity took the name of Saint Louis. [King Louis XI backed the project](https://www.churches-of-rome.info/CoR_Info/SLdF%20092/SLdF092.pdf).

The present building began 40 years later. On 12 August 1518 [Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, the future Pope Clement VII, laid the first stone in the presence of Pope Leo X](https://va.diplomatie.gouv.fr/presence-francaise/les-pieux-etablissements-art-et-religion). He had [commissioned the French architect Jean de Chenevières](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Luigi_dei_Francesi), whose [original church was centrally planned](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=229276).

Building did not get far. [Work had already stalled by 1524](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=229276). The Sack of Rome in 1527, carried out by [the mutinous troops of Emperor Charles V](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_%281527%29), and a lack of money then kept the site shut. Work restarted under Pope Paul III, and from 1549 a new phase laid out the long nave the church has today.

French royal money finished it. [Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France, gave money and ceded a whole block next to her own palace](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=229276), now Palazzo Madama, so that the church could be enlarged. [Henry II, Henry III, Catherine and Cardinal Matthieu Cointerel](https://va.diplomatie.gouv.fr/presence-francaise/les-pieux-etablissements-art-et-religion) paid for its completion. [Giacomo della Porta designed the façade, built between 1580 and 1588](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=229276), and [Domenico Fontana built the church to della Porta's design](https://va.diplomatie.gouv.fr/presence-francaise/les-pieux-etablissements-art-et-religion). Fontana was [Pope Sixtus V's architect, famous for moving the Vatican obelisk into St Peter's Square](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/domenico-fontana_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/).

[Cardinal François de Joyeuse, Protector of France before the Holy See, consecrated the church on 8 October 1589](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Luigi_dei_Francesi). The timing was hard for France. Henry III, one of the church's royal patrons, [had died on 2 August 1589, stabbed by a friar, and his heir was the Protestant Henry of Navarre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_III_of_France). When the French national church in Rome was consecrated 67 days later, France's new king was still a Protestant.

![The travertine façade of San Luigi dei Francesi, designed by Giacomo della Porta and built between 1580 and 1588.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-cca3d01bf2560611.jpg)

*The façade. Photo: Maros Mraz, **[CC BY 2.5](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/)**, via **[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Luigi_dei_Francesi_-_Facade.jpg)**.*

## The façade and the 18th-century interior

[The façade is faced in travertine, divided by pilasters into five bays with three portals, and crowned by a triangular pediment bearing the arms of France](https://www.turismoroma.it/it/node/731). [Its four statues show Charlemagne, Saint Louis, Saint Clotilde and Saint Jeanne de Valois](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89glise_Saint-Louis-des-Fran%C3%A7ais_de_Rome), carved by Pierre de l'Estache [in the mid-18th century](https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/content/dam/iubilaeum2025/pellegrinaggio/cammini-giubilari-dentro-roma/iter-europaeum/libretti/10-IT_S.LUIGI-DE-FRANCESI.pdf). [Relief roundels carry the salamander, the emblem of Francis I](https://va.diplomatie.gouv.fr/presence-francaise/les-pieux-etablissements-art-et-religion), carved for the earlier, unfinished church.

Inside, [the church has a nave and two aisles with no transept, massive arches on piers, five chapels on each side and a barrel vault](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=229276). It is [about 51 metres long and 35 metres wide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Luigi_dei_Francesi), and [a shallow dome with a lantern](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=229276) rises where the nave meets the sanctuary.

The interior that visitors see today is the work of the French architect Antoine Dérizet, who [directed a new decoration from 1749 to 1764](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/antoine-deriset_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/). He [clad the interior in Sicilian jasper under a coffered vault of white and gold stucco](https://va.diplomatie.gouv.fr/presence-francaise/les-pieux-etablissements-art-et-religion). Over the nave, [Charles-Joseph Natoire painted the Death and Apotheosis of Saint Louis between 1754 and 1756](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-Joseph_Natoire).

![The nave of San Luigi dei Francesi, looking towards the high altar, with Dérizet's marble and gilded stucco.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-3f9f5d3ffef0939a.jpg)

*The nave. Photo: NikonZ7II, **[CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, via **[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Luigi_dei_Francesi_%28Rome%29_-_Interior.jpg)**.*

![Charles-Joseph Natoire's Death and Apotheosis of Saint Louis on the nave vault, painted between 1754 and 1756.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-bee43d1c15cf77ed.jpg)

*Natoire's vault. Photo: Livioandronico2013, **[CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, via **[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Luigi_dei_Francesi_%28Rome%29_-_Ceiling_HDR.jpg)**.*

The church is [placed under the authority of the French Embassy to the Holy See, within the Pieux Établissements de la France à Rome et à Lorette](https://va.diplomatie.gouv.fr/presence-francaise/les-pieux-etablissements-art-et-religion), and it is the main gathering place of the French Catholic community in Rome. The Pieux Établissements [own the works in the French churches of Rome](https://saintlouis-rome.net/horaires-visite-opening-hours/caravage/). [Mass is said every day](https://saintlouis-rome.net/horaires-habituels-des-celebrations-annonces/), [in French](https://www.churches-of-rome.info/CoR_Info/SLdF%20092/SLdF092.pdf).

The three knowledge graphs in this piece are drawn in the light-ground version of KXCO's Caravaggio palette, whose colours were measured from The Calling of Saint Matthew: the umber of its dark ground, the ochre of its window light and the vermilion of the sleeves at the counting table.

![Exhibit 1. San Luigi dei Francesi, 1478 to today: the periods of the church's life and what happened in each.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-346e7f3d63afdd61.svg)

**Exhibit 1: what each link rests on**

- 1478: the French community obtains Farfa Abbey's land and small churches by exchange ([Historical Marker Database](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=229276))
- 2 April 1478: a bull of Sixtus IV creates the new French church of Saint Louis ([Embassy of France to the Holy See](https://va.diplomatie.gouv.fr/presence-francaise/les-pieux-etablissements-art-et-religion))
- 12 August 1518: Cardinal Giulio de' Medici lays the first stone, with Leo X present ([Embassy of France to the Holy See](https://va.diplomatie.gouv.fr/presence-francaise/les-pieux-etablissements-art-et-religion))
- 1524: building stalls; the 1527 Sack and a lack of money keep it shut; a new phase starts in 1549 ([Historical Marker Database](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=229276))
- Catherine de' Medici gives money and the land beside her palace, now Palazzo Madama ([Historical Marker Database](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=229276))
- 1580 to 1588: the façade is built to Giacomo della Porta's design ([Historical Marker Database](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=229276))
- 8 October 1589: Cardinal François de Joyeuse consecrates the church ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Luigi_dei_Francesi))
- 1591: the Cavalier d'Arpino is engaged to fresco the Contarelli Chapel ([Web Gallery of Art](https://www.wga.hu/html_m/c/caravagg/04/index.html))
- 1593: the Cavalier d'Arpino finishes the Contarelli Chapel vault ([the Holy See](https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/content/dam/iubilaeum2025/pellegrinaggio/cammini-giubilari-dentro-roma/iter-europaeum/libretti/10-IT_S.LUIGI-DE-FRANCESI.pdf))
- 23 July 1599 to 4 July 1600: Caravaggio paints the Calling and the Martyrdom; the altarpiece follows in 1602 ([Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michelangelo-merisi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/))
- 16 February 1612: Domenichino is contracted for the Saint Cecilia frescoes ([The Metropolitan Museum of Art](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336073))
- 1749 to 1764: Antoine Dérizet directs the new interior decoration ([Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/antoine-deriset_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/))
- 1754 to 1756: Charles-Joseph Natoire paints the Death and Apotheosis of Saint Louis on the nave vault ([French Wikipedia](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-Joseph_Natoire))
- 1793: Pius VI unites the French foundations in Rome, the origin of the Pieux Établissements ([Embassy of France to the Holy See](https://va.diplomatie.gouv.fr/presence-francaise/les-pieux-etablissements-art-et-religion))
- 25 November 1989: John Paul II says Mass for the fourth centenary of the consecration ([the Holy See](https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/fr/homilies/1989/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19891125_s-luigi-dei-francesi.html))
- 2025: new lighting makes the chapel part of the whole church, and the coin-operated lights are removed ([D5 MAG](https://d5mag.com/?p=66155))
- June 2026: the Factum Foundation records the whole Contarelli Chapel in high resolution ([Factum Foundation](https://factumfoundation.org/our-projects/digitisation/digitising-the-contarelli-chapel-in-rome/))

## How Caravaggio got the Contarelli commission

The Contarelli Chapel is [the fifth chapel of the left aisle, the last before the sanctuary](https://va.diplomatie.gouv.fr/presence-francaise/les-pieux-etablissements-art-et-religion). Its founder was a Frenchman, Matthieu Cointerel, known in Rome as Matteo Contarelli. Born in Anjou in 1519, he [rose in the papal administration and was made datary by Gregory XIII](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/matteo-contarelli_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/), the head of the office that handled papal favours and benefices. He [bought one of the church's ten side chapels in 1565](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/matteo-contarelli_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/), long before [Gregory XIII made him a cardinal in 1583](https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1583.htm).

The programme was set from the start. On 13 September 1565 [Girolamo Muziano was contracted](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/matteo-contarelli_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/) to paint the Calling and the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew on the side walls and an altarpiece of the Evangelist with the angel. He never carried it out.

Cointerel [died in Rome in late November 1585](https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1583.htm). [His will set aside money to decorate the chapel with scenes from the life of his name saint, Matthew](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contarelli_Chapel). Then the chapel stalled. [Quarrels over his estate kept it unfinished](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/matteo-contarelli_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/): in 1596 the French community complained that it had been closed for more than 25 years, and in 1597 the Pope moved the funds to the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the office that managed the building money of St Peter's.

Two earlier attempts came and went. In 1587 [the sculptor Jacques Cobaert was ordered to carve a marble Saint Matthew for the altar](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/matteo-contarelli_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/). The statue [was never finished and stands today in the church of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini in Rome](https://www.artribune.com/?p=1250246). In 1591 [the Cavalier d'Arpino was engaged to fresco the walls as well as the vault](https://www.wga.hu/html_m/c/caravagg/04/index.html). He painted only the vault, finished in 1593, and left the walls bare. [The vault shows Matthew raising the son of the King of Ethiopia, with four Old Testament prophets](https://www.artribune.com/?p=1250246).

![The vault of the Contarelli Chapel, frescoed by the Cavalier d'Arpino and finished in 1593, above the chapel's window.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-b39bdab62e5683e1.jpg)

*The Cavalier d'Arpino's vault over the chapel window. Photo: Sailko, **[CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)**, via **[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_luigi_dei_francesi,_interno,_cappella_contarelli_04.JPG)**.*

By 1599 the walls were still bare, and [the Jubilee of 1600, with Rome expecting crowds of French pilgrims, pressed for the chapel to be finished](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contarelli_Chapel). The money now sat with the Fabbrica di San Pietro, and [its prefect was Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, Caravaggio's patron](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contarelli_Chapel). Del Monte's palace, Palazzo Madama, [stands in the same block as San Luigi](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Madama_%28Roma%29), and Caravaggio lived there. Giovanni Baglione, a painter who knew Caravaggio and later sued him, wrote that Caravaggio got the chapel [through the agency of his Cardinal](https://archive.org/download/HArteR12T17/HArteR12T17_djvu.txt). Giovan Pietro Bellori, writing in 1672, told a different story. In his account [the poet Giovan Battista Marino took Caravaggio to the Crescenzi household, and Cointerel's heir, Virgilio Crescenzi, chose him to compete with the Cavalier d'Arpino](https://archive.org/download/levitedepittoris00bell/levitedepittoris00bell_djvu.txt). [Marino advised giving the Cavalier the frescoes above and Caravaggio the oil paintings](https://archive.org/download/levitedepittoris00bell/levitedepittoris00bell_djvu.txt).

[On 23 July 1599 Caravaggio contracted for the two side canvases](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contarelli_Chapel), and [they were in place by July 1600](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contarelli_Chapel). He was filling walls that his former employer had left bare: [a few months after reaching Rome, he had worked in the Cavalier d'Arpino's studio, painting flowers and fruit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio).

![Caravaggio, drawn by Ottavio Leoni in about 1621.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-d74f996065c2666c.jpg)

*Ottavio Leoni's portrait of Caravaggio, **[about 1621, Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ritratto_di_Caravaggio_%28Ottavio_Leoni%29.jpg)**. Public domain.*

## The left wall: the Calling of Saint Matthew

The Calling hangs on the left wall, [oil on canvas, 322 by 340 centimetres](https://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/47606/Merisi%20Michelangelo%2C%20Vocazione%20di%20san%20Matteo%20Evangelista). Caravaggio sets the scene in a Roman counting room. [Matthew, the tax collector Levi, sits at a table counting money with his companions, all in the dress of Caravaggio's own day, while Christ, barefoot and in a timeless cloak, enters from the right with Saint Peter](https://www.wga.hu/html/c/caravagg/04/23conta0.html).

A beam of light crosses the dark room from the upper right. [It seems to come from the chapel's only source of daylight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contarelli_Chapel), [the window behind the altar](https://www.wga.hu/html/c/caravagg/04/24conta.html), so the painted light and the real light fall the same way. Christ points, and [his outstretched hand echoes the hand of Adam in Michelangelo's Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contarelli_Chapel). The light reads as grace breaking into a room of money and status, and the painting closes the distance between sacred history and the street outside the church.

![Caravaggio, The Calling of Saint Matthew, 1599 to 1600, Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-b691c85ca57d8f2d.jpg)

*Caravaggio, The Calling of Saint Matthew, 1599 to 1600. Public domain. **[Open the full-resolution scan, 9,770 by 10,039 pixels](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Calling_of_Saint_Matthew-Caravaggo_%281599-1600%29.jpg)**.*

![Adam's hand, left, reaching towards God's on Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling, above; Christ's hand in Caravaggio's Calling, below.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-e801ce0cb8a7b388.jpg)

*Above, left: Adam's hand, in Michelangelo's Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel, via **[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michelangelo_-_Creation_of_Adam_%28cropped%29.jpg)**. Below: Christ's hand in the Calling. Both public domain.*

Which man is Matthew is a real argument. [Most art historians identify him as the bearded man at the centre, pointing to himself as if to ask "Me?"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Calling_of_Saint_Matthew). [Since Andreas Prater in 1985, some scholars have argued that Matthew is the young man at the end of the table, head down over the coins](https://www.kunstgeschichte-ejournal.net/577/). Bellori, writing in 1672, [read the man turning to Christ with a hand on his breast as the saint](https://archive.org/download/levitedepittoris00bell/levitedepittoris00bell_djvu.txt), while an old man puts on his spectacles to watch a youth pull the coins towards himself.

![The table in the Calling: the bearded man pointing, the young man bent over the coins and the old man in spectacles.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-b8072c7958120841.jpg)

*Detail of the Calling. Public domain.*

The painting changed as Caravaggio worked. [X-rays show that Saint Peter was added later, and that Christ's gesture was reworked from one that looked more like accusing than calling](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michelangelo-merisi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/). [The two men at the left end of the table, who go on counting and never notice Christ, come from a 1545 print by Hans Holbein of gamblers unaware of Death](https://www.wga.hu/html/c/caravagg/04/23conta0.html).

Not everyone was won over. When the Calling was put on view, [the senior painter Federico Zuccari looked it over, said "I see nothing here but the idea of Giorgione", sneered at all the fuss, turned his back and walked off](https://archive.org/download/HArteR12T17/HArteR12T17_djvu.txt).

## The right wall: the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew

[The Martyrdom hangs on the right wall, opposite the Calling](https://www.wga.hu/html/c/caravagg/04/24conta.html), and at [323 by 343 centimetres it is almost the same size](https://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/entry/work/47644/Merisi%20Michelangelo,%20Martirio%20di%20san%20Matteo%20Evangelista). The story comes from the Golden Legend: [Matthew was killed in Ethiopia on the order of King Hirtacus, struck with a sword as he stood at the altar after Mass](https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/goldenlegend/GoldenLegend-Volume5.asp). Caravaggio paints him [as a priest in alb and chasuble, at an altar marked with a Greek cross and a burning candle](https://www.wga.hu/html/c/caravagg/04/24conta.html).

[Compared with the quieter Calling, the Martyrdom is a scene of violent action](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contarelli_Chapel). Its killer is not a soldier. [The half-naked figure at the centre is not the martyr but his executioner](https://www.wga.hu/html/c/caravagg/04/24conta.html). Cointerel had [asked for the saint to be murdered by a soldier sent by the wicked king](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martyrdom_of_Saint_Matthew_%28Caravaggio%29), and Caravaggio's first attempt had one: [X-rays show a more classical composition, closed by a temple, with a soldier bursting in at the centre](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martirio_di_san_Matteo). [Bellori noted that Caravaggio remade the picture twice](https://archive.org/download/levitedepittoris00bell/levitedepittoris00bell_djvu.txt), and [X-rays show two earlier attempts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martyrdom_of_Saint_Matthew_%28Caravaggio%29), moving towards fewer, larger figures and no architecture.

![Caravaggio, The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, 1599 to 1600, Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-75a4b37699e3395b.jpg)

*Caravaggio, The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, 1599 to 1600. Public domain. **[Open the full-resolution scan, 12,439 by 10,928 pixels](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Martyrdom_of_Saint_Matthew-Caravaggio_%28c._1599-1600%29.jpg)**.*

[An angel leans down from a cloud to hold out the martyr's palm](https://www.wga.hu/html/c/caravagg/04/24conta.html). In the background, left of centre, a bearded man turns away from the killing. [He is usually identified as Caravaggio's self-portrait](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martyrdom_of_Saint_Matthew_%28Caravaggio%29).

![The angel on the cloud holding out the martyr's palm, in the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-4c9b82e885592e05.jpg)

*Detail of the Martyrdom: the angel with the palm. Public domain.*

![The bearded man in the background of the Martyrdom, usually identified as Caravaggio's self-portrait.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-24709fcd0225603a.jpg)

*Detail of the Martyrdom: the face in the background. Public domain.*

## Over the altar: the Inspiration, and the version Rome refused

The altarpiece came last. [On 30 January 1602 Cointerel's nephew François refused Cobaert's statue because he wanted a painting](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Matteo_e_l%27angelo_%28Caravaggio_Roma%29), and [on 7 February 1602 Caravaggio was contracted for the altarpiece](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Matteo_e_l%27angelo_%28Caravaggio_Roma%29).

His first version did not stay. In Bellori's account [the saint had neither decorum nor the look of a saint, sitting with his legs crossed and his feet rudely exposed to the people](https://archive.org/download/levitedepittoris00bell/levitedepittoris00bell_djvu.txt). The collector [Vincenzo Giustiniani took the rejected picture for himself and had Caravaggio paint another](https://archive.org/download/levitedepittoris00bell/levitedepittoris00bell_djvu.txt). [The first version went to the Berlin museums in 1815](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Matteo_e_l%27angelo_%28Caravaggio_Roma%29) and [was destroyed in 1945, presumed burnt in a fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio). It survives only in black-and-white photographs.

![The rejected first version of Saint Matthew and the Angel, destroyed in Berlin in 1945, known only from photographs.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-fcdf666d355385d0.jpg)

*The first version, destroyed in 1945. Public domain. **[Open the photograph, 3,049 by 4,000 pixels](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caravaggio_%28Michelangelo_Merisi%29_%281571_-_1610%29_-_The_Evangelist_Matthew_-_365_-_Gem%C3%A4ldegalerie.jpg)**.*

The story has its doubters. [Ferdinando Bologna, in Treccani's biography, dates the first picture to before January 1596, when he says the patrons turned it down](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michelangelo-merisi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/). [Luigi Spezzaferro argued in 2001 that it was a temporary altarpiece](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Matteo_e_l%27angelo_%28Caravaggio_Roma%29), meant to stand in the chapel until the work there was finished.

The second version, the one on the altar today, [was painted quickly and paid for on 22 September 1602](https://www.wga.hu/html/c/caravagg/04/26conta.html). It measures [about 2.9 by 1.9 metres](https://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/47604/Merisi%20Michelangelo,%20San%20Matteo%20Evangelista%20e%20l'angelo). [The angel, wrapped in swirling drapery, counts off on his fingers the points Matthew is to write](https://www.wga.hu/html/c/caravagg/04/26conta.html). Matthew [rests one knee on a stool, dips his pen and turns his face to the angel](https://archive.org/download/levitedepittoris00bell/levitedepittoris00bell_djvu.txt), and [the stool teeters over the edge of the step towards the viewer, as if about to fall into the chapel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inspiration_of_Saint_Matthew).

![Caravaggio, The Inspiration of Saint Matthew, 1602, the altarpiece of the Contarelli Chapel.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-1dadf0a30620ddc9.jpg)

*Caravaggio, The Inspiration of Saint Matthew, 1602. Public domain. **[Open the full-resolution scan, 6,911 by 10,816 pixels](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Inspiration_of_Saint_Matthew-Caravaggio_%281602%29.jpg)**.*

![The angel counting on his fingers above Matthew, in the Inspiration of Saint Matthew.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-844dd49c45591711.jpg)

*Detail of the Inspiration: the angel counts off the points. Public domain.*

![Matthew's stool tipping over the edge of the step, in the Inspiration of Saint Matthew.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-7b1ec0ff9cfa0b93.jpg)

*Detail of the Inspiration: the stool on the edge of the step. Public domain.*

## What the 3 canvases changed

[The Contarelli paintings were Caravaggio's first major public commission, and they made his reputation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contarelli_Chapel): [he became, suddenly, the most famous artist in Rome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martyrdom_of_Saint_Matthew_%28Caravaggio%29). [The two side canvases, shown in 1600, established his name, and his devices of figures pressed to the picture plane and focused light were much imitated](https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/crvg/hd_crvg.htm). [Younger painters in Rome were won over at once, and Caravaggism became the leading style for ambitious young artists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio).

The three canvases show what was new. Caravaggio used ordinary people as models. He used tenebrism, the extreme contrast of light and dark, both to build the picture and to carry its meaning. He set sacred stories in the visible present. [The Martyrdom is often described as the moment when the Mannerism of the late 16th century gives way to the Baroque](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martyrdom_of_Saint_Matthew_%28Caravaggio%29). Caravaggio was not the only new force in Rome. [In Rome and Italy it was the influence of his rival Annibale Carracci that ultimately prevailed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio).

![Exhibit 2. Where the Contarelli Chapel sits in Caravaggio's life, from Milan in 1571 to Porto Ercole in 1610.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-91276627704571f7.svg)

**Exhibit 2: what each link rests on**

- 6 April 1584: apprenticed to the painter Simone Peterzano in Milan ([Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michelangelo-merisi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/))
- 1592: moves to Rome ([National Gallery](https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/michelangelo-merisi-da-caravaggio))
- A few months after arriving: works in the Cavalier d'Arpino's studio, painting flowers and fruit ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio))
- 1595: joins Cardinal del Monte's household, at Palazzo Madama in San Luigi's block ([National Gallery](https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/michelangelo-merisi-da-caravaggio); [Italian Wikipedia](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Madama_%28Roma%29))
- The Contarelli canvases are his very first public commission ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paintings_in_the_Contarelli_Chapel))
- 23 July 1599 to 4 July 1600: the Calling of Saint Matthew ([Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michelangelo-merisi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/))
- 23 July 1599 to 4 July 1600: the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew ([Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michelangelo-merisi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/))
- 1602: the Inspiration of Saint Matthew, after the first version is rejected ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio))
- 24 September 1600 to 10 November 1601: Saint Peter and Saint Paul for the Cerasi Chapel ([Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michelangelo-merisi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/))
- June 1601: the Death of the Virgin is commissioned, and is later rejected ([Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michelangelo-merisi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/))
- 1602 to 1604: the Entombment for the Chiesa Nuova ([Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michelangelo-merisi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/))
- 1603 to 1606: the Madonna di Loreto for Sant'Agostino ([Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michelangelo-merisi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/))
- May 1606: fatally wounds Ranuccio Tomassoni and flees Rome ([Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michelangelo-merisi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/))
- Naples, then Malta and Sicily: altarpieces for churches and for the Knights of Malta ([Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michelangelo-merisi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/))
- By 9 January 1607: The Seven Works of Mercy for the Pio Monte della Misericordia ([Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michelangelo-merisi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/))
- 1608: the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, the only work he signed ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beheading_of_Saint_John_the_Baptist_%28Caravaggio%29))
- 1608 to 1609: altarpieces in Syracuse and Messina ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio))
- 18 July 1610: dies at Porto Ercole ([Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michelangelo-merisi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/))

![The Contarelli Chapel lit by the daylight from its window, with the Inspiration over the altar and the Martyrdom on the right wall.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-d2279fa4023d546a.jpg)

*The chapel in daylight, with the altarpiece in its marble frame between two columns. Photo: Kent Wang, **[CC BY-SA 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)**, via **[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Contarelli_Chapel_%2852798684114%29.jpg)**.*

## The church in the history of the Catholic Church

San Luigi was begun at a turning point for the Church. Martin Luther [wrote the Ninety-five Theses in 1517](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-five_Theses), the year before Giulio de' Medici laid San Luigi's first stone. Giulio de' Medici was [elected Pope Clement VII on 18 November 1523](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04024a.htm), and [Rome was sacked under him on 6 May 1527](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_%281527%29).

The church was finished in the Rome of the Catholic Reform. [The Council of Trent met in 25 sessions between 1545 and 1563](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Trent), and its last session ruled on sacred images. [Paintings of the mysteries of redemption, it said, instruct the people and confirm them in the faith, and bishops must see that nothing profane or indecorous appears in them](https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct25.html). Decorum is also the word Bellori used, in 1672, for what the first Contarelli altarpiece lacked.

France's wars of religion ran alongside. [Catholics and Huguenots fought from 1562 to 1598](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Wars_of_Religion). Henry of Navarre [renounced Protestantism on 25 July 1593, and Clement VIII lifted his excommunication on 17 September 1595](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_France). Henry [signed the Edict of Nantes in April 1598](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Nantes). A year later, with [the Holy Year proclaimed by Clement VIII](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_%28Christianity%29) about to open on 24 December 1599, Caravaggio was contracted for the Contarelli walls.

Politics has stayed close. Palazzo Madama, Cardinal del Monte's home and Caravaggio's lodging, [stands in the same block as San Luigi](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Madama_%28Roma%29). In 1798 it [housed the central office of the Roman Republic](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Madama_%28Roma%29), which the French set up after taking Rome. On 28 November 1871 [the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy met there for the first time](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Madama_%28Roma%29), and the palace is home to the Italian Senate today.

![Exhibit 3. San Luigi in the history of the Catholic Church: the Church, the politics of France and Italy, and the church itself, from 1471 to today.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-e0d7f4317406c0d6.svg)

**Exhibit 3: what each link rests on**

- Sixtus IV reigns 1471 to 1484 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Sixtus_IV))
- 2 April 1478: Sixtus IV's bull creates the French church ([Embassy of France to the Holy See](https://va.diplomatie.gouv.fr/presence-francaise/les-pieux-etablissements-art-et-religion))
- 1517: Martin Luther writes the Ninety-five Theses, the year before San Luigi is begun ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-five_Theses))
- 6 May 1527: Charles V's troops sack Rome under Clement VII, who had laid San Luigi's first stone ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_%281527%29))
- 1545 to 1563: the Council of Trent meets in 25 sessions ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Trent))
- December 1563: Trent rules that sacred images teach the faithful, with nothing indecorous ([Hanover College's Council of Trent texts](https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct25.html))
- 2 August 1589: Henry III dies, leaving the Protestant Henry of Navarre as heir ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_III_of_France))
- 8 October 1589: San Luigi is consecrated ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Luigi_dei_Francesi))
- 17 September 1595: Clement VIII lifts Henry IV's excommunication ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_France))
- April 1598: Henry IV signs the Edict of Nantes, granting the Huguenots substantial rights ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Nantes))
- 24 December 1599 to 24 December 1600: the Holy Year in which the Calling and Martyrdom are finished ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_%28Christianity%29))
- 19 February 1797: the Treaty of Tolentino sends over a hundred works of art to the Louvre ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tolentino))
- 1798 to 1799: the Roman Republic's central office sits in Palazzo Madama, next to San Luigi ([Italian Wikipedia](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Madama_%28Roma%29))
- 20 September 1870: Italy takes Rome and the Papal States end ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Rome))
- 28 November 1871: the Senate first meets in Palazzo Madama, today the Italian Senate ([Italian Wikipedia](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Madama_%28Roma%29))
- 11 February 1929: the Lateran Treaty between Italy and the Holy See ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateran_Treaty))
- 1962 to 1965: the Second Vatican Council ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Vatican_Council))
- 7 June 1967: Paul VI makes San Luigi a cardinal's titular church, held by archbishops of Paris ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Luigi_dei_Francesi))
- 25 November 1989: John Paul II marks the fourth centenary ([the Holy See](https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/fr/homilies/1989/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19891125_s-luigi-dei-francesi.html))

France has changed its government far more often than the chapel has changed. Since 1610, the year Caravaggio died, France has been [an absolute monarchy and then, from 1791, a constitutional one](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_systems_in_France). Between 1792 and 1870 it had [a First Republic, a First Empire, two Restorations, the Hundred Days, the July Monarchy, a Second Republic and a Second Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_systems_in_France). Since 1870 it has had [the Third Republic, the Vichy regime, a Provisional Government and the Fourth and Fifth Republics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_systems_in_France). That is 15 regimes since 1610, and [the Conseil constitutionnel lists 15 French constitutional texts since 1791](https://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/la-constitution/les-constitutions-de-la-france). The three canvases are [in the Contarelli Chapel today](https://www.finestresullarte.info/en/ancient-art/caravaggio-monitoring-campaign-begins-on-contarelli-chapel-masterpieces).

## The rest of the church

The second chapel on the right, the Polet Chapel, [holds Domenichino's frescoes of the Stories of Saint Cecilia](https://www.italia.it/fr/latium/rome/eglises-lieux-de-culte/eglise-saint-louis-des-francais). [Domenichino received the contract from Pierre Polet on 16 February 1612](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336073), and the frescoes [are among the principal examples of Baroque classicism in Rome](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336073), the Bolognese line that ran beside Caravaggio's. [The altarpiece is Guido Reni's copy of Raphael's Saint Cecilia](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=229276), whose original is in Bologna.

![The Polet Chapel, with Domenichino's frescoes of the life of Saint Cecilia and Guido Reni's copy of Raphael's Saint Cecilia over the altar.](https://livetradingnews-media.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2026/11/07/cmpgg3-bccabe7e10182da6.jpg)

*The Polet Chapel. Photo: Leonard J. DeFrancisci, **[CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, via **[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cappella_Polet_inside_the_Chiesa_di_San_Luigi_dei_Francesi_%28Rome,_Italy%29_P001.jpg)**.*

[The high altarpiece is the Assumption of the Virgin by Francesco Bassano the Younger, painted about 1588](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiesa_di_San_Luigi_dei_Francesi). [Girolamo Muziano painted the 1592 altarpiece of the chapel of Saint Nicholas](https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/content/dam/iubilaeum2025/pellegrinaggio/cammini-giubilari-dentro-roma/iter-europaeum/libretti/10-IT_S.LUIGI-DE-FRANCESI.pdf), years after he had failed to paint the Contarelli Chapel. Giovanni Baglione, [who sued Caravaggio for libel in 1603](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Baglione), [painted frescoes in the chapel of the Virgin](https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/content/dam/iubilaeum2025/pellegrinaggio/cammini-giubilari-dentro-roma/iter-europaeum/libretti/10-IT_S.LUIGI-DE-FRANCESI.pdf). The life of Clovis, King of the Franks, [is told in 16th-century frescoes in the chapel of Saint Remigius by Girolamo Siciolante, Jacopino del Conte and Pellegrino Tibaldi](https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/content/dam/iubilaeum2025/pellegrinaggio/cammini-giubilari-dentro-roma/iter-europaeum/libretti/10-IT_S.LUIGI-DE-FRANCESI.pdf). [The chapel of Saint Louis was designed and decorated by Plautilla Bricci, and the Vatican's Jubilee guide calls it practically the first architectural work in the world by a woman](https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/content/dam/iubilaeum2025/pellegrinaggio/cammini-giubilari-dentro-roma/iter-europaeum/libretti/10-IT_S.LUIGI-DE-FRANCESI.pdf).

The church keeps French memory too. [The economist Frédéric Bastiat, who died in Rome on 24 December 1850, is buried here](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Bastiat). [Claude Lorrain's remains were moved here in 1840](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Gell%C3%A9e). [Chateaubriand had a monument made here to Pauline de Beaumont, who died in Rome in 1803](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_de_Beaumont). [Cardinal de Bernis's heart stays at San Luigi; in 1803 his family won permission to move his body to Nîmes Cathedral](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois-Joachim_de_Pierre_de_Bernis).

## Seeing the chapel, and seeing it at full resolution

San Luigi is open to visitors, and [the church publishes its opening hours on its own website](https://saintlouis-rome.net/horaires-visite-opening-hours/). [Mass is said every day](https://saintlouis-rome.net/horaires-habituels-des-celebrations-annonces/). The chapel is busy: [it receives thousands of visitors a day, and more than 6,000 at peak](https://factumfoundation.org/our-projects/digitisation/digitising-the-contarelli-chapel-in-rome/).

For years visitors fed coins into a meter to light the paintings. That has changed. [The coin-operated lighting has been removed, and the chapel is now part of the church's overall lighting](https://d5mag.com/?p=66155). [The new system was designed by Marco Frascarolo and paid for by the Fondazione Bulgari for the 2025 Jubilee](https://www.artribune.com/?p=1131453).

The paintings can be seen at full resolution, free to view and download:

- [The Calling of Saint Matthew, 9,770 by 10,039 pixels](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Calling_of_Saint_Matthew-Caravaggo_%281599-1600%29.jpg)
- [The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, 12,439 by 10,928 pixels](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Martyrdom_of_Saint_Matthew-Caravaggio_%28c._1599-1600%29.jpg)
- [The Inspiration of Saint Matthew, 6,911 by 10,816 pixels](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Inspiration_of_Saint_Matthew-Caravaggio_%281602%29.jpg)
- [The rejected first version, from a black-and-white photograph, 3,049 by 4,000 pixels](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caravaggio_%28Michelangelo_Merisi%29_%281571_-_1610%29_-_The_Evangelist_Matthew_-_365_-_Gem%C3%A4ldegalerie.jpg)
- [The church's own website, with opening hours and Mass times](https://saintlouis-rome.net/horaires-visite-opening-hours/)

The next record of the chapel is Factum's. Its data, including [the 1,000 dpi scans of the three canvases](https://factumfoundation.org/our-projects/digitisation/digitising-the-contarelli-chapel-in-rome/), [has not yet been made public, and Artribune reports it will be available online in future](https://www.artribune.com/?p=1250246). Factum also plans to [recreate the first version of the Inspiration](https://factumfoundation.org/our-projects/digitisation/digitising-the-contarelli-chapel-in-rome/), the picture Rome refused and Berlin lost. The release of that data, and the recreation, are the next facts to watch.

Shayne Heffernan, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of Live Trading News, is the founder of the KnightsBridge Group ([shayneheffernan.com](https://www.shayneheffernan.com)).

*This article reflects the opinion of the author and Live Trading News, with each sourced fact linked. It is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice.*

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