Francisco de ZurbarÁn, Lot n° 307

THE RELEASE OF THE PETRUS FROM THE KERKER Oil on canvas. 117 x 96 cm. The painting is accompanied by a report by Dr. Jose Antonio Fernándes Martin, Professor of Art History at the University of Madrid, dated January 27, 1995. The theme of the painting is based on the text of the Acts of the Apostles (chapters 12,1-19), according to which the Apostle Peter, placed in a dungeon by Herod, receives a miraculous deliverance through an angel. The scenery here - as in the majority of the paintings in the circle of Zurbaran - is set in a dark sphere of space, here in a dungeon whose grating is visible in the background. Peter with beard and high forehead, features of his identification, is shown to the right in the three-quarter portrait, wrapped in a green cloak. In the darkness of the dungeon, almost blinded by the angel's light, he holds his eyes narrowed, his hand stretched out as if groping. The angel leans towards the apostle and holds him by his left hand, his wings wide outstretched and, like the body, brightly illuminated. The angel's left hand points the way to the right. There are several other depictions of Peter in Zurbaran's work, such as the "Vision of St. Peter" or the figure of Peter in the "Last Supper at Emmaus" in the Museum of Mexico City. There is a clear relationship to Zurbaran's painting "Penitent Peter" (Sotheby's London, July 2018). The accompanying expert opinion provides detailed documentation of the painting's relationship to the circle of its origin, as well as the religious communities closely associated with the veneration of Saint Peter. Thus, the expert opinion assumes the time of origin to be approximately 1638. Literature: Beat Wismer, Odile Delenda and Mar Borobia, Zurbarán. Catalogue for the exhibition Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, Munich 2015. Cees Nooteboom, Zurbarán - Selected Paintings 1620-1664, Munich 2010. Mina Gregori, Tiziana Frati, L'opera completa di Zurbaran,