Painter;Charles Joseph Natoire

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The Church of St. Louis of the French (Italian: San Luigi dei Francesi, French: Saint Louis des Français, Latin: S. Ludovici Francorum de Urbe) is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, not far from Piazza Navona. The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to St. Denis the Areopagite and St. Louis IX, king of France.

The church was designed by Giacomo della Porta and built by Domenico Fontana between 1518 and 1589, and completed through the personal intervention of Catherine de' Medici, who donated to it some property in the area. It is the national church in Rome of France.

The interior was restored by Antoine Dérizet between 1749 and 1756. Ceiling has frescoes by Charles-Joseph Natoire recounting stories of Saint Louis IX, Saint Denis and Clovis.

Giacomo della Porta made the façade as a piece of decorative work entirely independent of the body of the structure, a method much copied later.[ The French character is evident from the façade itself, which has several statues recalling national history: these include Charlemagne, St. Louis, St. Clothilde and St. Jeanne of Valois.

Contarelli Chapel contains a cycle of paintings by the Baroque master Caravaggio in 1599–1600 about the life of St. Matthew. This includes the three world-renowned canvases of The Calling of St Matthew (on the left wall), The Inspiration of Saint Matthew (above the altar), and The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (on the right wall).

The Polet Chapel contains frescoes by Domenichino portraying the Histories of Saint Cecilia, and the altarpiece a painting of Saint Ceciclia of Guido Reni, copy of the masterpiece of Raphael Sanzio, the Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia, exhibited at the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna.


Other works in the church include pieces by Cavalier D'Arpino, Francesco Bassano il Giovane, Muziano, Giovanni Baglione, Siciolante da Sermoneta, Jacopino del Conte, Tibaldi and Antoine Derizet.

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