Description
This image of Saint Peter repentant of his denial of Christ, according to the Gospel account, was attributed to Ribera, due to the intense naturalism and the gloomy lighting that makes the figure stand out from a dark and uniform background. However, it has been unanimously recognized as the work of the Sevillian Murillo, at a relatively early date in its production, around the years 1650-55, when the influence of Ribera, although softened, exerted a strong attraction on the Sevillian painter. The face translates pain and hope very well, and the treatment of the fabrics, with folds with rounded edges, responds to the dates on which it was surely painted. It is a significant work of his production (around 1655), when the artist begins to abandon the tenebrism and express himself more freely. The composition is indebted to Zurbarán's standing saints, but Murillo's sensibility is very far from the austerity of the Extremaduran, and his images of saints show, with delicacy and a looser and more vibrant technique, the very expression of saintliness. Bilbao Fine Arts Museum