St. Peter Repenting

The subject

This intense depiction of St. Peter perfectly conveys the anguish and repentance of his remorse following his disownment of Christ, who had fallen into the hands of the Pharisees. The incident is narrated in the Gospel of Matthew:

“.…then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly”. (Matthew 26:75)

The painting

Claudio Strinati highlights how the Bolognese master achieved his immense and much deserved fame thanks in part to his “introspective” portraits: solitary characters captured at moments of intense emotion (repentance, for example), as occurs in this painting. The sense of remorse that haunts St. Peter’s heart completely invades the composition and is conveyed by Reni through the saint’s imploring eyes wet with tears, which are turned directly to the Father.

Evident in this painting is the use of colour impasto with which Reni managed to transfer an emotional dimension onto the canvas without ever falling into rhetoric, remaining strongly anchored in the cultured classicism for which he was renowned.