Giuseppe Antonio Petrini, Portrait of Saint Peter, Oil on Canvas, 18th Century, Framed

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Giuseppe Antonio Petrini (Carona, Italy, 1677 – 1757 ca.)
Title: Portrait of Saint Peter
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: without … Read more Giuseppe Antonio Petrini (Carona, Italy, 1677 – 1757 ca.)
Title: Portrait of Saint Peter
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: without frame 75.5 x 63 cm - with frame 96 x 83 x 5 cm

Expertise by Professor Giancarlo Sestieri

Provenance:
Luigi Koeliker - Koetser Collection. Collection number 858 on verso.

The apostle in half-length portrait, looking upwards. His shoulders are bare from his blue shirt, a brown cloak is draped over his arm. In his hand he holds the ‘keys to paradise’, which make him attributively recognisable. The bearded face shows the pleading remorse for his defamation of Christ described in the biblical account. The painting style immediately reveals Petrini's brushwork. The painter, who was born in Ticino, is one of the northern Italian-Lombard artists of the late Baroque period, who was possibly associated with Bartolomeo Guidobono (1654-1709) in Turin after 1700 and is documented with works in his home city between 1711 and 1753. Works by his hand were mainly found in the Como, Bergamo and Lugano areas. Other depictions of St Peter can be found in the church of Dubino and in a private collection in Montagnola. In 1991, an exhibition of his works was organised at the Villa Malpensata in Lugano, Switzerland. The painter was the son of a sculptor and, according to the sources, a pupil of the Genoese painter Bartolomeo Guidobono (1654-1709). However, he was also inspired by the works of Andrea Pozzo (1642-1709). Works by his hand can be found in several churches in Piedmont, such as San Maurizio in Pinerolo. At the end of the 1730s, a strong development towards the Rococo style can be recognised, as demonstrated by his ‘Allegories of the Seasons’ (Lugano Art Museum). See less