The Martyrdom of Saint Peter Arbués

Baltasar de Echave y Rioja was born in México in 1632, being the last member of the Echave dynasty. His artistic production was characterized by loose, wavy brushwork which imbues his oeuvre with an effect of movement. Saint Peter Arbués was a fitting figure to depict for the Court of the Holy Office. His tenure of the positions of First inquisitor of Aragón and Canon of Zaragoza was cut short in 1484 by the terrible event shown in this painting. One night, while at prayer, he was assassinated by some hired thugs in the pay of certain members of the Jewish faith who had been condemned by the Inquisition. This fact, together with his later canonization in the VII th century, made him a paradigm for all members of the Inquisition. The paintings composition derives from the engraving by Pedro de Villafranca y Malagón, which also served as the model for the painting on the same subject done by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617- 1682). The execution of this work was not without some difficult moments, since it did not please the members of the Inquisition, who decided to deduct twenty pesos from the agreed one-hundred-pesos fee. The painter was forced to correct the faults that the inquisitors deemed present in the piece in order to attain the perfection that his powerful sponsors insisted on. This work entered the MUNAL as part of its founding endowment in 1982.