The Denial of Saint Peter (La Tour)

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

^ ^a ^b Thuillier 1992, p. 228.
^ "Catalogue entry" (in French)..
^ "Joconde entry" (in French).
^ Thuillier 1992, p. 187.
^ Thuillier 1992, p. 188.
^ ^a ^b Thiollet 1999, p. 79.
^ Mark 15.24; Matthew 27.35; Luke 23.24; John 19.34

Bibliography

Conisbee, Philip (1996). An Introduction to the Life and Art of Georges de La Tour. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art.
Judovitz, Dalia (2018). Georges de La Tour and the Enigma of the Visible. New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 9780823277445.
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: Classiques Garnier. ISBN 978-2-8124-1162-5. OCLC 852662060.