The Inspiration of Saint Matthew (1602) is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

This was not an easy commission for Caravaggio, and at least two of the three paintings had to be either replaced or repainted to satisfy his patron, the Cardinal Del Monte.

In February 1602, following the installation of his first two pieces in the chapel, Caravaggio was contracted to create an altarpiece, to be delivered by Pentecost of that year.

The first painting he created, Saint Matthew and the Angel, was rejected and later destroyed in World War II.

[2] In the work featured on the altar, the angel belongs to an aerial and sublime dimension, enveloped in an encircling rippled sheet.