Crucifixion of Saint Peter (Caravaggio)
| Crucifixion of Saint Peter | |
|---|---|
| Italian: Crocifissione di San Pietro | |
.jpg) | |
| Artist | Caravaggio |
| Year | 1601 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 230 cm × 175 cm (91 in × 69 in) |
| Location | Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome |
The Crucifixion of Saint Peter (Italian: Crocifissione di san Pietro) is a work by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, painted in 1601 for the Cerasi Chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. Across the chapel is a second Caravaggio work depicting the Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus (1601). On the altar between the two is the Assumption of the Virgin Mary by Annibale Carracci.
History
The two lateral paintings were commissioned in September 1600 by Monsignor
Although much has been said about the supposed rivalry between Carracci and Caravaggio, there is no historical evidence about any serious tensions. Both were successful and sought-after artists in Rome. Caravaggio gained the Cerasi commission right after his celebrated works in the Contarelli Chapel had been finished, and Carracci was busy creating his great fresco cycle in the Palazzo Farnese. In these circumstances there was little reason for them to regard each other as business rivals, states Denis Mahon.[3]
The contract signed on 24 September 1600 stipulates that "the distinguished painter, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio" will paint two large cypress panels, ten palms high and eight palms wide, representing the conversion of Saint Paul and the martyrdom of Saint Peter within eight months for the price of 400 scudi. The contract gave a free hand to the painter to choose the figures, persons and ornaments depicted in the way as he saw fit, "to the satisfaction however of his Lordship", and he was also obliged to submit preparatory studies before the execution of the paintings. Caravaggio received 50 scudi as advance payment from the banker Vincenzo Giustiniani with the rest earmarked to be paid on completion. The dimensions specified for the panels are virtually the same as the size of the existing canvasses.[4]
When Tiberio Cerasi died on 3 May 1601, Caravaggio was still working on the paintings, as attested by an avviso dated 5 May which mentioned that the chapel was being decorated by the hand of the "famosissimo Pittore", Michelangelo da Caravaggio. A second avviso dated 2 June proves that Caravaggio was still at work on the paintings a month later. He completed them sometime before 10 November when he received the final instalment from the heirs of Tiberio Cerasi, the Fathers of the Ospedale della Consolazione.[5] The total compensation for the paintings was reduced to 300 scudi for unknown reasons.[6]
The paintings were finally installed in the chapel on 1 May 1605 by the woodworker Bartolomeo who received four scudi and fifty baiocchi from the Ospedale for his work.[7]
The first version
Giovanni Baglione in his 1642 biography about Caravaggio reported that the first versions of both paintings were rejected:
"The panels at first had been painted in a different style, but because they did not please the patron, Cardinal Sannesio took them; in their place he painted the two oil paintings that can be seen there today, since he did not use any other medium. And – so to speak – Fortune and Fame carried him along."[8]
This report is the only historical source for the well-known story. Although the biography was written decades after the events, its veracity has generally been accepted. Baglione provided no further explanation about the reasons and circumstances of the rejection but modern scholarship put forward several theories and conjectures. The first versions of the paintings were obviously acquired by
Description
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The painting depicts the martyrdom of
"But now it is time for thee, Peter, to deliver up thy body unto them that take it. Receive it then, ye unto whom it belongeth. I beseech you the executioners, crucify me thus, with the head downward and not otherwise: and the reason wherefore, I will tell unto them that hear" – Acts of Peter[13]
The large canvas shows the three executioners fighting to straighten the cross. Peter is already nailed to the rafters, his hands and feet are bleeding. The apostle is practically naked, which emphasizes his vulnerability. He is an old man, with a gray beard and a bald head, but his aging body is still muscular, suggesting considerable strength. He rises from the cross with great effort, turning his whole body, as if he wants to look towards something that is out of the picture (God). His eyes do not look at the executioners but he has a lost look. [14]
The lifting of the cross requires the efforts of three men. One is pulling it up with ropes while his helpers try to raise the heavy equipment with their arms and shoulders. The yellow-breeched workman, who is crouching under the cross, grabs a shovel that was used to dig a hole into the rocky ground for the stake. The whole process seems disorganized and chaotic as if the sudden heaviness of the cross caught the executioners off-guard. Their faces are largely shielded from the viewer making them characterless executors of an unjust act ordered by an invisible authority. The background of the scene looks like a wall of impenetrable darkness but it is in fact a cliff of rock. This is an allusion to the meaning of Peter's name: the "rock" upon which Christ declared his Church to be built (Gospel of Matthew 16:18).
Style
According to Denis Mahon, the two paintings in the Cerasi Chapel form "a closely-knit group of sufficiently clear character" with
The most striking feature of the painting is its pronounced realism: the saint is "very much the poor fisherman from Bethsaida, and the executioners, their hands heavily veined and reddened, their feet dusty, are toiling workmen", says Helen Langdon.[15] This was the beginning of a new phase in Caravaggio's art where he concentrated on the Christian ethos of humility and salvation through suffering.
Related works
The painting was copied in 1616 by
Some scholars have identified the first version of the Crucifixion with a painting now in the
See also
References
- ISBN 0-06-430128-1.
- ^ Denis Mahon: Egregius in Urbe Pictor: Caravaggio revised, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 93, No. 580 (Jul., 1951), p. 226
- ^ Denis Mahon op. cit. p. 230
- ^ Walter F. Friedlaender: Caravaggio Studies, Schocken Books, 1969, pp. 302–303
- ^ Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, Two "Avvisi", Caravaggio, and Giulio Mancini, in: Source: Notes in the History of Art, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Spring 1993), pp. 22, 25.
- ^ Stefania Macioce: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: fonti e documenti 1532–1724, Ugo Bozzi, 2003, doc. 116., p. 106
- ^ Stefania Macioce, op. cit., p. 161
- ^ Giovanni Baglione: The Life of Michelagnolo da Caravaggio, in Giulio Mancini, Giovanni Baglione, Giovanni Pietro Bellori: Lives of Caravaggio, Pallas Athene, 2005
- ^ Howard Hibbard: Caravaggio, Harper & Row, 1983, p. 121 and p. 298
- ^ The paintings are documented in the Florentine manuscript of Mancini, transcribed by Friedlaender in Caravaggio Studies, p. 255.
- ^ Maurizio Marini: Caravaggio «pictor praestantissimus», Newton Compton, Roma, 1989, p. 447
- ^ Macioce, op. cit., p. 358
- ^ The Apocryphal New Testament, translated by Montague Rhodes James, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924, p. 834
- ^ Pietro Caiazza: Caravaggio e gli occhi di Pietro Morente, 2005, published at [1]
- ^ Helen Langdon: Caravaggio. A Life, Westview Press, 2000, p. 222
- ^ J. Richard Judson: Gerrit van Honthorst: A Discussion of his Position in Dutch Art, Springer Science+Business Media, Dordrecht, 1959, p. 18
Bibliography
- Gash, John (2004). Caravaggio. Chaucer. ISBN 1-904449-22-0.
- Langdon, Helen (1998). Caravaggio: A Life. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-11894-9.
- ISBN 978-0-312-27474-0.
External links
- Smarthistory - Caravaggio's Crucifixion of Saint Peter Archived 2014-10-08 at the Wayback Machine
Media related to Crucifixion of Saint Peter by Caravaggio at Wikimedia Commons
