The Denial of Saint Peter

This composition is derived from Caravaggio’s late masterpiece, the Denial of Saint Peter in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Painted during the final, fraught months of Caravaggio’s life, it showcases an extreme stage in his revolutionary style. The composition is a marvel of narrative concision, and the episode was a favorite subject for many followers of Caravaggio in the early seventeenth century. The story unfolds at night, providing the perfect setting to experiment with the effects of chiaroscuro and the resulting compositions were often illuminated by a single light source. Here, in an echo of Caravaggio’s painting, the light streams in from the left, illuminating Saint Peter and the maid and throwing the face of the soldier into shadow. The rich, brown palette and claustrophobic positioning of the figures are also strongly reminiscent of the older artist’s work. Yet, Vermiglio’s maid is calmer, his Peter older and more poignantly wrinkled, and the resultant composition is altogether more controlled, and imbued with a classicism more conspicuous than in the Metropolitan Museum’s painting.