Crucifixion of St. Peter (Caravaggio)

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Crucifixion of St. Peter
Caravaggio, 1601
Oil on canvas
230 × 175 cm
Santa Maria del Popolo

The Crucifixion of St. Peter (Crocefissione di san Pietro) (1600) is a masterpiece by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, painted for the Cerasi Chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. Across the chapel is a second Caravaggio painting depicting the stunning The Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus (1601) . On the altar, between the two, is a luminous and crowded Assumption of the Virgin Mary by Annibale Carracci.

The painting depicts the martyrdom of St. Peter by crucifixion, although Peter asked that his cross be inverted so as not to imitate his mentor, Christ. The large canvas shows Romans, their faces shielded, struggling to erect the cross of the elderly but muscular St. Peter. Peter is heavier than his aged body would suggest, and his lifting requires the efforts of three men, as if the crime they perpetrate already weighs on them. This crucifixion is bloodless but not painless. It is a zig-zag of diagonals, tipping towards the inevitable martyrdom.

The two Caravaggios, as well as the alterpiece by Carraci, were commissioned by Monsignor Tiberio Cerasi in September 1600. Caravaggio's original versions of both paintings were rejected, and the works in the chapel now were painted as second versions in 1601. The first Conversion of Paul has been identified with the The Conversion of Saint Paul (1600) in the Odescalchi Balbi Collection, Rome, but the first version of the Crucifixion of Peter has disappeared. Some scholars have identified the lost Crucifixion with a painting now in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, but this is not generally accepted. The first versions passed into the private collection of Cardinal Sannessio, and several modern scholars (including John Gash, Helen Lagdon and Peter Robb - see References section below) have speculated that Sennassio may have taken advantage of Cerasi's sudden death to seize some pictures by Rome's most famous new painter. In all events, the second versions, which seem to have been more unconventional than the first, were accepted without comment by the executors of Cerasi's estate.

The two saints, Peter and Paul, together represent the foundations of the Catholic church, Peter the 'rock' upon which Christ declared his Church to be built (Gospel of Matthew 16:18), Paul who founded the seat of the church in Rome. Caravaggio's paintings were thus intended to symbolise Rome's (and Cerasi's) devotion to the Princes of the Apostles in this church which dominated the great piazza welcoming pilgrims as they entered the city from the north, representing the great Counter-Reformation themes of conversion and martyrdom and serving as potent propaganda against the twin threats of backsliding and Protestantism.

Caravaggio, or his patron, must have had in mind the Michelangelo frescoes in the Vatican's Capella Paolina when choosing the subjects for these paintings. However, the Caravaggio scene is far more stark than the confusing melee miracle of the mannerist Michelangelo fresco (1546-1550) [1] in the Vatican.

Compare this to Goya's painting of The Third of May 1808, Caravaggisti Luca Giordano's Crucifixion of St. Peter (1660) now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice^[1], and Massacio's geometric study from Pisan Altar (1426) ^[2]

For the old man, see Saint Jerome Writing.