Orazio Gentilleschi (Caravaggio)

This masterpiece of Caravaggio's late style was acquired after the second world war by Vincenzo Imparato Caracciolo of Naples. Previously unknown to Caravaggio scholarship, it was cleaned and restored by Pico Cellini (1959–1964) [see Ref. Marini 1987, p. 508]. First published by Pierre Rosenberg and then more fully by Marini, the picture quickly gained wide acceptance. Aside from Marini, who has repeatedly argued that it is a work of Caravaggio's first Neapolitan period (1606–7), scholars have recognized it as among Caravaggio's last works. The distinction between Caravaggio's first and second Neapolitan periods and the direction of his art towards greater narrative concision, a more rapid and summary execution, and a pervasive, dark tonality,
Christiansen 2001, p. 36 n. 56]. Was Savelli in direct contact with the artist in Naples, or did Scipione Borghese, who we know was in continuous touch with the artist, conceivably play a role in the purchase of the painting? In 1606–7, when he was associate Vice Legate to Ferrara, Paolo Savelli had assisted Scipione in obtaining Dosso Dossi's canvases with the story of Aeneas, then still in the Este castle in Ferrara. Might Scipione have returned the favor by assisting in Savelli in acquiring a work by
There he was accused by three passersby of being a disciple of Jesus. He denied each successively, thus fulfilling Christ's prophecy that before the cock crowed he would deny him thrice. Prior to the seventeenth century Peter's denial was usually included only as part of a Passion cycle. Even in the seventeenth century, in keeping with Counter Reformation theology, it was Peter's repentance after his denial rather than the denial itself that was the most popular subject. Caravaggio's invention is notable for the condensation of the Gospel narratives into a dramatic confrontation involving just three figures, shown half length (a format first explored in North Italy in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries). The closest analogies for the style of the picture are with the "Martyrdom of Saint Ursula" (Banca di Napoli), with which it must be more or less contemporary. As in that work, so here Caravaggio probes with unparalleled poignancy a dark world burdened by guilt and doom, suggesting to some scholars an intersection with his biography. Coupled with formal gesture as a conveyor of meaning is Caravaggio's use of costume to insist on painting as a staged fiction. Just as, in the "Martyrdom of Saint Ursula", the king wears a piece of near-contemporary armor, thus breaking