Die Tränen des heiligen Petrus

El Greco painted Saint Peter weeping again and again over his career, and this is one of the earliest large versions. The subject fit the moment. After the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church was pressing the value of confession and penance against Protestant doubts, and a repentant saint in tears made the point without a word. Peter has just denied knowing Christ three times, as he was warned he would. El Greco gives him upturned eyes wet with tears, hands clasped, and the two gold keys of the Church hanging at his side. The theme was almost new when he took it up. Few painters before him had made Peter's remorse the whole picture rather than one detail in a larger scene.