Saint Peter Penitent, Giovanni Battista Beinaschi (Fossano 1634 ca. – Naples 1688)

Giovanni Battista Beinaschi (Fossano 1634 ca. – Naples 1688) workshop

Saint Peter the Penitent

Oil painting on canvas
80 x 60cm
Framed 97 x 77 cm.

The work shows us an intense image of Saint Peter the Apostle, portrayed according to the typical iconography that sees him as a mature man, with his hands joined and clenched in prayer, while his gaze is directed towards the sky in a gesture of devout religiosity.

The figure of the Apostle is described with a deep scenographic setting in a highly dramatic and baroque style, vigorous, with marked somatic features, who holds the keys to Paradise, his iconographic attribute (“I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven”, Matthew 16,19).

The backlighting effects and a magical chiaroscuro atmosphere make the character dynamic, oriented towards a light source that touches his face.

Studying the stylistic characteristics and the related details, we can limit the attribution to the late Baroque painter Giovan Battista Beinaschi (1634 – 1688), whose prolific activity was concentrated between Rome, where he trained, and Naples. Nonetheless, he moved frequently throughout his career between Turin, Parma, perhaps Bologna and Genoa, assimilating various artistic influences from each place.

If, at first, he showed a propensity for Roman classicism, this influence was soon supplanted by an increasingly pronounced approach to the Baroque cultural front: many critics, in particular, place Beinaschi's personality within the current of the "tenebrist painters" (although he was active in the second half of the seventeenth century);

In our case, it is sufficient to compare it with similar subjects created in Rome around 1670/80, such as 'The Weeping of Saint Peter' from the Durazzo Pallavicini collection in Genoa (https://www.museidigenova.it/it/le-lacrime-di-san-pietro) *.

*Giovanni Battista Beinaschi (Fassano, 1636 – Naples, 1688) – Oil on canvas, cm. 91 x 78 –
Genoa, Museums of Strada Nuova

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The painting is sold complete with a pleasant wooden frame and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and descriptive iconographic card.

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