First Appearance at Auction of a "Saint Peter" by Jusepe de Ribera

Rediscoveries are legion, but those that are already established works are rare. This painting is signed, certainly, but above all, it is listed. In the volume published in 2019 in honor of Nicola Spinosa, Francesco Petrucci, curator of the Chigi Palace in Ariccia, gave a precise list of the Neapolitan works in the Chigi Collection. One was a Saint Peter , described in detail in the inventory made in the early 1670s at the Palazzo Chigi ai Santi Apostoli, the Roman residence designed by Bernini for Cardinal Flavio Chigi, then in his 1692 inventory, and finally in that of his cousin, Agostino Chigi in 1698. So here it is, as proved by a wax seal on a fragment of the original frame, removed by a restorer some fifty years ago and preserved to good effect.…