Saint Peter Raising Tabitha

In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter clears the room before the miracle. The widows of Jaffa are crowded around the body of Tabitha, a woman who had spent her life sewing clothes for the poor, and they hold up the coats she made for them. Peter sends them all outside, kneels, prays, and tells her to get up. Guercino keeps the room full. Peter stands in the middle with his hand raised, and every witness stays where they are.

He was 27 and working for Alessandro Ludovisi, archbishop of Bologna, who ordered a group of canvases from him in these years and was elected pope three years later. The picture reached Florence through Grand Prince Ferdinando de' Medici, the great collector of the family, and it is listed at Palazzo Pitti in the inventory of 1723.