The chapel owes its existence to an endowment left by the French cardinal, Matthieu Cointerel (Contarelli in Italian), who died in 1585.

Cointerel's executor, Virglio Cresenzi, commissioned a Flemish sculptor, Jacques Cobaert, to make a marble statue of Matthew and an angel for the altar.

The details were clearly set out in the contract—Cobaert's altarpiece would show Matthew sitting in a chair, about to write the Gospel, with an angel standing and "appearing to reason or in other suitable pose."

And on the left, Matthew at the moment of his martyrdom, celebrating Mass at the altar, with "a crowd of men and women, young and old and children...some appalled and others pitying...".

Cesari finished the vault by 1593, but then became occupied with papal commissions; Cobaert produced a statue that was rejected, in part because it represented the Apostle without the traditional angel.

In 1597, the money for the project was transferred to the Fabbrica di San Pietro, which administered the Church's buildings, yet producing no result.

Alarmed by the fact that Rome would be overrun with French pilgrims, the prefect in charge of the Fabricca, and of the money, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, suggested that his own personal painter, Caravaggio, should be contracted to paint oils on canvas for the two side walls where Cesari would not put his murals.