Spanish school; 17th century.

Spanish school; XVII century.
"St. Peter penitent".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 79 x 62 cm; 87,5 x 71 cm (frame).
In this canvas we see St. Peter showing his repentance, after having denied Christ three times after his capture on the Mount of Olives. The figure is worked with an enormous naturalism, highlighting the wrinkles of the face and the expressiveness of the hands, and the tenebrist lighting used manages to provide a greater physical presence, a greater three-dimensionality and also intensity and effectiveness to the figure. These features, as well as the chromatic range used, are typical of the naturalistic baroque of Caravaggio and Ribera, the main influences that can be seen in this composition. The dramatic figure is set against a dark background of dense darkness, as if emerging from the shadows, directly illuminated by a theatrical and directed spotlight, which enters the image from the upper left corner and falls directly on the face and hands of the saint, leaving the rest of the figure enveloped in a nuanced penumbra.
Regarding the subject depicted, St. Peter (Bethsaida, c. 1 B.C. - Rome, 67) was, according to the New Testament, a fisherman, known to be 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 both the canonical and apocryphal Gospels.