Saints Peter and Paul Led to Martyrdom

On 13 January 1626 the marquis Asdrubale Mattei paid Giovanni Serodine the balance due on three canvases, and the payment record names them. One showed Christ disputing with the doctors, one the Tribute Money, and the third the spartizione, the parting, of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. This is the third. Mattei wanted all three for the picture gallery of his palace in Rome, and this canvas hung facing the Tribute Money, which was sold in 1802 and is now in the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh. In the Mattei inventory of 1631 the painter appears as Giovanni della Voltolina, a name that points, loosely, to his family's roots in the north.

The subject is a Roman legend. Peter and Paul, led out to die on the same day, were said to have parted on the road to Ostia, each going on to his own execution. Serodine halts the march for a moment in a dark, crowded space. The guards push forward, and the two apostles exchange a last look. Peter already carries his cross on his shoulders, an unusual invention, and Paul is being pulled away by the man who will behead him.