Caravaggio
The Crucifixion of Saint Peter, 1601
oil on canvas
Here Caravaggio’ was conscious of competing with Michelangelo’s fresco in the Pauline chapel of the Vatican. In order to place St Peter he has simply reversed the pose of Michelangelo’s prototype and the old man now leans back to the right. His painting is a more sombre and intense event. There is no crowd just three executioners who fit into a criss-cross pattern each marked out by the colours of their clothes but made annonymous for two men have their backs to the spectator and the eyes of the third are in darkness. The psychological meaning of the picture is found in St Peter’s agony in both the ancient and modern sense of the word for Caravaggio’s apostle struggles and suffers simultaneously.’