Oil on canvas, 72.5cm by 56cm.
The painting records the anguish of St. Peter as he repents having three times denied that he knew Christ, on the night of Christ’s arrest by the Roman soldiers.
Guido Reni was born in Bologna and was apprenticed to the Flemish painter Denis Calvaert (1540-1619) when he was 10.
Influenced and inspired by the naturalism of the Bolognese family of artists, the Carracci, and by the frescoes of Raphael (1483-1520), he became one of the most famous and sought after painters in Europe.
He established two studios in Bologna, which between them had almost two hundred pupils, through whom his influence was assured.
