The Tears of Saint Peter
Critics have attributed the work to several artists active in Rome during the first half of the 17th century, but they have not reached a definitive identification. It depicts St Peter in tears in the presence of a rooster, symbol of his betrayal but also of the new dawn.
Object details
Inventory
Date
Second quarter of the 17th century
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Provenance
Borghese Collection, cited in Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, p. 8. Purchased by the Italian State, 1902
Commentary
The painting, whose provenance is unknown, first appeared in the fideicommissary inventory of 1833 as a work by Jusepe de Ribera, known as lo Spagnoletto. The first to mention its presence in Villa Borghese was Nibby (II, 1841, p. 596) who, citing the attribution to the Spanish painter, described it as ‘a work full of expression [...] and in which the vigour of the colour can also be observed’. Piancastelli (1891) confirmed this ascription, while Venturi (1893) assigned it to Giacinto Brandi, and Longhi (1928) to ‘a Roman naturalist mildly influenced by Ribera and Mola, around 1640’. Della Pergola (1959), for her part, preferred a more generic reference to the Roman sphere of the mid-17th century, which is undoubtedly the correct attribution.
The work depicts St Peter distraught at having denied Jesus: with his hands clasped in prayer, the elderly saint turns his repentant gaze towards a distant point; a rooster is also present, symbolising betrayal and at the same time the good tidings of a fresh dawn and the light that vanquishes darkness.
Elisa Martini
Bibliography
- A. Nibby, Roma nell’anno 1838, Roma 1841, p. 596.
- G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese, in Archivio Galleria Borghese, 1891, p. 373.
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 224.
- G. Cantalamessa, Note manoscritte al Catalogo di A. Venturi del 1893, Arch. Gall. Borghese, 1911-1912, n. 533.
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 225.
- A. Pigler, Barockthemen. Eine Auswahl von Verzeichnissen zur Ikonographie des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, I, Budapest 1956, p. 336.
- P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, II, Roma 1959, p. 104, n. 150.
- R. Longhi, Edizione delle opere complete. II. Saggi e ricerche 1925-1928, 2 voll., Firenze 1967, I, p. 356.
- K. Herrmann Fiore, Museo e Galleria Borghese. Roma scopre un tesoro. Dalla pinacoteca ai depositi un museo che non ha più segreti, San Giuliano Milanese 2006, p. 171.
