Castilian school; XVI century.

Castilian school; XVI century.
"The denial of St. Peter".
Oil on panel.
Presents faults and Repainting.
Measurements: 92 x 90 cm.
Thematically this work shows the biblical theme of the Denial of St. Peter, related to the Cycle of the Passion of Christ and that appears in the New Testament, in which Christ prophesies at the last supper, where he announced to the apostle that, despite being his faithful follower, before the rooster crowed the day of the Crucifixion would have denied him three times. Spain is, at the beginning of the 16th century, the European nation best prepared to receive the new humanist concepts of life and art due to its spiritual, political and economic conditions, although from the point of view of the plastic forms, its adaptation of those implanted by Italy was slower due to the need to learn the new techniques and to change the taste of the clientele. Soon the anatomy, the movement of the figures, the compositions with a sense of perspective and balance, the naturalistic play of the folds, the classical attitudes of the figures began to be valued; but the strong Gothic tradition maintains the expressiveness as a vehicle of the deep spiritualist sense. This strong and healthy tradition favors the continuity of religious painting by adding a sense of balance that avoids its predominance over the immaterial content that animates the forms. In the first years of the century, Italian works arrived in our lands and some of our artists went to Italy, where they learned first hand the new norms in the most progressive centers of Italian art, whether in Florence or Rome, and even in Naples.

St. Peter (Bethsaida, c. 1 B.C. - Rome, 67) was, according to the New Testament, a fisherman, known for being one of Jesus' twelve apostles. The Catholic Church identifies him through the apostolic succession as the first Pope, based, among other arguments, on the words addressed to him by Jesus: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the power of Death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." St. Peter could be said to have been Jesus' confessor, his closest disciple, both being united by a very special bond, as narrated in the Gospels, both canonical and apocryphal.