De bevrijding van Petrus uit de gevangenis 1653 - 1703

Federico Panza created this red chalk drawing of the liberation of Saint Peter from prison in the late 17th century. Its subject matter comes from the Bible, where an angel springs Peter from his imprisonment by King Herod. This drawing emerges from a long tradition of Biblical subjects in Italian art, especially the city of Naples, where Panza spent his career. We might ask what role religious imagery played in the daily lives of Neapolitans. Naples had many active confraternities, religious brotherhoods that sponsored art as a form of devotion. It was also a city marked by social unrest: in 1647, just a few years after Panza's birth, the city erupted in revolt against its Spanish rulers. Religious imagery could be both an expression of genuine piety and a tool of social control in such a fractious urban environment. To understand Panza's artistic choices, we can consult archival documents such as confraternity records, which might reveal who commissioned works of art and why. This approach highlights the complex social and institutional forces that shaped artistic production in 17th-century Naples.