Spanish school, second third century XVII. Lot n° 47

Spanish school, second third of the 17th century. "Saint Peter". Oil on canvas. Measurements: 40 x 32 cm; 54 x 46 cm (frame). Devotional image of Saint Peter. The saint appears seated, wrapped in blue mantle and draped tunic, with his look directed out of the picture, as if he was listening to a distant call. The large keys, his principal attribute, symbol of the Kingdom of Heaven, rest on the ground, and behind them a twilight landscape opens up. The mysterious presence of the cockerel could allude to the transition between day and night, light and darkness, which the saint embodies in the history of Christianity. The monumental canon of the figure, the naturalism in the depiction of the clothing and the Baroque lights that construct the landscape place the painting in 17th-century Spain. According to the New Testament, Saint Peter was a fisherman, known as one of Jesus' twelve apostles. The Catholic Church identifies him through the apostolic succession as the first Pope, based among other arguments on the words addressed to him by Jesus: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the power of Death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven". St. Peter could be said to have been Jesus' confessor, his closest disciple, the two being united by a very special bond, as narrated in both the canonical and apocryphal Gospels.