St. Matthew 1625

Frans Hals’s oil painting, St. Matthew, now in the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, is an intimate study of aging and enlightenment. The composition is anchored by the weighty book, its pages catching the light, drawing our eyes to the interplay between the figures. The saint's weathered face, framed by a voluminous beard, is rendered with loose, visible brushstrokes, contrasting with the smoother skin of the child beside him. Hals's expressive brushwork defies academic rigidity. The rawness of his technique aligns with a broader questioning of established artistic norms, echoing a shift toward valuing direct sensory experience. The chiaroscuro effect—strong contrasts between light and dark—heightens the emotional intensity, creating a sense of immediacy and psychological depth. This manipulation of light and shadow serves not merely to illuminate but to probe the tensions between knowledge and innocence, age and youth. The visible brushwork and dramatic lighting serve to undermine fixed meanings, leaving us to contemplate the complex, and ultimately unknowable, nature of human experience.