Saint Peter

This stern and commanding figure is Saint Peter, the first pope and one of the founders of the Catholic Church. He comes from a polyptych (a multi-panelled altarpiece) which Crivelli painted for the high altar of the church of San Domenico, in Ascoli Piceno in the Italian Marche. His hooded eyes gaze intently out at us, while his greying beard, tanned face and deeply lined features, painted with Crivelli’s customary exactness, suggest a life of toil in the open air: Peter was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee before being called by Christ to join him.

Peter stands on a marble shelf, like a statue, in front of a background of burnished gold which is tooled – patterned with special tools – to look like damask. In a detail typical of Crivelli, his right shoe pokes out over the edge of the marble parapet – as if asking us to kiss his foot, as those admitted to audience with a pope would have done.