Saint Peter Penitent 1665 - 1668

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"Saint Peter Penitent" is an oil-on-canvas painting by Italian Baroque artist Girolamo Troppa, created between 1665 and 1668. Currently housed at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Denmark, the artwork depicts Saint Peter, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, in a moment of deep contemplation. The dramatic chiaroscuro contrasts the saint's somber expression with the stark darkness of the background, emphasizing his inner turmoil. The close-up composition focuses on Peter's face, drawing the viewer into his emotional state. This Baroque painting is a powerful testament to Troppa's ability to capture the human experience through expressive brushstrokes and a masterful use of light and shadow.

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statensmuseumforkunst about 1 year ago

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Sheltered by an outcrop of rock, overlooking the restless sea, we see Saint Peter wringing his hands, eyes turned heavenwards – an iconography typical of this era’s depictions of ‘Saint Peter Penitent’. The literary source of the scene appears in all four gospels of the New Testament, which give almost identical accounts of an episode from the Passion in which a fearful Peter betrays Christ three times in the gateway and courtyard of Pilate’s house. When Peter realises that Jesus’s prediction, ‘this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times’, has just come true, he cries tears of despair and repentance. The weeping Saint Peter was not just a model image of remorse and penitence within the Catholic church. During the Danish Baroque era, particularly under the reign of Frederik III, the teachings of Lutheran orthodoxy were closely associated with the concept of ‘pønitense’. The road to salvation was paved with penance and atonement, remorse and conversion.