Maidservant from a 'Denial of Saint Peter' (fragment)
imitator of Bartolomeo Manfredi (Ustiano c.1580 – Rome 1620)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1620
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
978 x 1016 mm (38 1/2 x 40 in)
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 732150
Caption
After Christ's arrest, Caiphus, the High Priest questioned him in his house. Meanwhile, Peter was standing in the courtyard when a maidservant recognised him. She is pointing saying; "You were there too, with this man from Nazareth, this Jesus", whilst soldiers sit nearby. Peter denied knowing Christ, three times, as the cock crowed thrice, as Christ had foreseen. This is a fragment of a painting that would have been much larger and would, no doubt, have included the figure of Peter on the left.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Maidservant from a 'Denial of Saint Peter' (fragment), imitator of Bartolomeo Manfredi (Ustiano c.1580 – Rome 1620), possibly French School, circa 1620. The composition shows the figure of the servant woman, in profile, wearing a turban and pointing with her right arm towards the left. A soldier, in a plumed hat, sits in the shadows in the background, on the left, and behind the woman, on the right, another soldier stands, helmeted and in armour. A portion of brown drapery can be seen at bottom left and the figure, which originally would have formed the left half of an oblong composition, and possibly could have been Saint Peter, has been cut away. According to the biblical story: after Christ's arrest, Caiphus, the High Priest questioned him in his house. Meanwhile, Peter was standing in the courtyard when a maidservant recognised him. She is pointing saying: "You were there too, with this man from Nazareth, this Jesus." Peter denied knowing Christ three times as the cock crowed, as Christ had predicted.
Provenance
Acquired by Richard Colt Hoare 2nd Bt (1758 – 1838) and thence by descent.Given to the National Trust along with the house, its grounds, and the rest of contents by Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, 6th Bt (1865 – 1947) in 1946.
Credit line
Stourhead, The Hoare Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Verso: Inscribed in white paint on back of frame and stretcher: 144
Makers and roles
imitator of Bartolomeo Manfredi (Ustiano c.1580 – Rome 1620), artist possibly French School, artist previously catalogued as attributed to Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Caravaggio 1571 - Port'Ercole 1610), artist
References
Colt Hoare 1818 Sir Richard Colt Hoare, A Description of the House and Gardens at Stourhead...with a Catalogue of the Pictures, Salisbury 1800, Bath 1818, rev. 1822, no.136 Hoare 1822 Sir Richard Colt Hoare, History of Modern Wiltshire (Hundred of Mere),1822 , p.77 Stourhead 1838: Inventory of Heir-Looms at Stourhead directed to be taken by the Will of the late Sir Richard Colt Hoare Bart. with the state and condition thereof, 1838 , no. 394 Nicolson 1979 Benedict Nicolson,The International Caravaggesque Movement: List of Pictures by Caravaggio and his Followers throughout Europe from 1590 to 1650, 1979, p.72