Saint Peter

In 1633 Portugal had no king of its own. It had been ruled from Madrid since 1580, and Philip IV of Spain also reigned in Lisbon as Philip III. The museum suggests it may have been at his wish that a set of 12 life-size apostles went to São Vicente de Fora, a monastery in Lisbon. Zurbarán's workshop in Seville painted the series, and this Peter was its central canvas, the only one he signed and dated. In the other apostles the light comes in at a slant from the upper left. Here it drops straight down onto Peter, who clasps his hands and lifts his eyes in remorse for having denied Christ, the keys of heaven hanging at his belt. Seven years later Portugal broke away from Spain and crowned its own king. The canvases stayed at São Vicente until 1913, when they came to this museum.