Candlelight Master

Exhibited by Robilant+Voena

Material Oil on canvas

Dimensions 93 × 126 cm

Status Vetted

About the Work

This important painting is a significant recent addition to the oeuvre of the anonymous Candlelight Master, active in the 1630s and 1640s in Rome. This masterfully talented yet obscure painter is known through a handful of works which all exhibit the same exquisite quality and share the common feature of being illuminated by a single candle. Scholars including Gianni Papi have pieced together the known oeuvre of the Candlelight Master, identifying pictures in notable collections including the Galleria Doria Pamphilij and Palazzo Barberini (both Rome), the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford) and Walter Art Gallery (Baltimore), with his hand.

This depiction of the penitent Saint Peter is the unique treatment of this subject in the Candlelight Master's oeuvre, formerly attributed to Gerard van Honthorst, and now correctly placed with the Candlelight Master, confirmed by Gianni Papi.

The picture has a rich provenance, in the mid-19th century belonging to the infamous Marchese Giovanni Pietro Campana, the director of the Monte di Pietà in Rome, who borrowed funds from the bank to build his collection. The work was subsequently sold by the Monte di Pietà to recover the funds.

Stylistically, Saint Peter in tears can be likened to 'Saint Paul visiting Saint Peter in prison' by the Candlelight Master in Burghley House, Lincolnshire, where the model for Saint Peter appears almost identical to the present painting.

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Provenance

Possibly marchese Orazio Giustiniani Collection, Rome (according to catalogue of 1875 Monte di Pietà sale, but not recorded in Giustiniani inventories).
Collection Giovanni Pietro Campana until 1858,
Monte di Pietà Collection, Rome (as Gerard van Honthorst), by whom sold in 1883 to
Collection Quintino Sella, by descent to his nephew Pietro Sella (as Gerard van Honthorst),
Private collection, Italy.