Details

Title

The Denial of St. Peter

Artist/Maker

Nicolas Tournier (French, 1590–1638)

Date

ca. 1630

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

63 x 95 inches

Credit

Gift of the Members Guild in honor of its 20th anniversary and in memory of Mr. Robert W. Woodruff on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Coca-Cola

Accession #

1986.52

On View

On View - Stent Family Wing, Level 2, Gallery 204

This painting depicts the Apostle Peter’s moment of spiritual crisis when he denies being a follower of Jesus. Peter, distinguished from the others by his old-fashioned dress, points to himself and raises a hand in a gesture of refutation, fulfilling Jesus’s prediction that he would deny him three times. Tournier, a French painter who spent seven years studying in Rome, used dramatic light and shade to instill the scene with emotional intensity and pathos.