The Denial of Saint Peter is a 1650 painting of the Denial of Peter by Georges de La Tour, possibly with some assistance from the painter's son Étienne.[1] It was signed and dated by the senior artist. In 1810 it was acquired from François Cacault by the musée d'Arts de Nantes, where it still hangs.[2][3]

The work was commissioned by Henri de La Ferté-Senneterre, governor of Lorraine, where La Tour lived and worked.[4] de La Ferté-Senneterre is recorded as paying 650 francs for a work entitled The Denial of St Peter in 1650, possibly the work now in Nantes. He was then one of the most important collectors of La Tour's work.[5]

The work's approach is very Caravagist, sidelining the work's supposed main subject and placing the soldiers gaming at a table at its centre.[1] In 17th century French society, "gaming was inseparable from luxury"[6] and was evidence of "indifference to salvation" - a similar link is made in the artist's The Card Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds, contemporary with Tristan L'Hermite's The Disgraced Page.[6] The gaming soldiers also refer forwards in time to those casting lots for Jesus' clothing at the foot of the cross.[7]

References

Bibliography

• Thuillier, Jacques (1992). Georges de La Tour (in French). Paris: Flammarion. ISBN 2-08-010074-2. OCLC 1249895865.
• Thiollet, Catherine (1999). "Variations sur la disgrâce dans "Le Page disgracié"". In Adam, Véronique; Berregard, Sandrine (eds.). Sur Le page disgracié : vingt-quatre études des Cahiers Tristan L'Hermite (in French). Paris. ISBN 978-2-8124-1162-5. OCLC 852662060.

На других языках

[fr] Le Reniement de saint Pierre (La Tour)