NOTES
Clothed in a blue tunic and sculptural orange drapery, St. Peter (identified by his attribute of the key) sits with his head in his hand, lost in remorseful reverie after he denied being a follower of Christ. The painting contains the hallmarks of international Caravaggism that had spread throughout the Italian peninsula and broader European continent in the first half of the seventeenth century: a dark, empty background, dramatic and spiritually symbolic lighting, and a solitary figure pressed up against the picture plane. The profusion and popularity of this style, however, also makes it difficult to pinpoint the attribution of this picture, though the painterly approach to flesh built up using a range of colors with fluid and rapid brushstrokes that rest on the surface suggests the painting is from Northern Italy.
