Saint Peter (Saint Simon)

In 1605 the last of old St Peter's in Rome was being pulled down for the new basilica, and Giacomo Grimaldi, a cleric of the church, recorded its chapels as they went. Beside his drawing of the chapel of the Holy Sacrament he noted where its pieces went, among them paintings of apostles that a Cardinal Borghese obtained from the canons of the basilica. That same year Camillo Borghese became Pope Paul V. By 1610 two unframed canvases, listed as a Saint Peter and a Saint Paul, belonged to his brother Francesco. The scholar Barbara Agosti connects them with Grimaldi's note and reads this figure as Simon, one of the chapel's first patrons. He prays on a cloud against a gold ground, wrapped in a flame-orange cloak with frayed edges. The canvas is attributed to Marco Pino and is kept in storage.