(Fossano 1636–1688 Naples)
Saint Peter,
oil on canvas, 126 x 101.5 cm, unframed

We are grateful to Francesco Petrucci for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a digital photograph.

The present work can be compared to The Tears of Saint Peter in Palazzo Rosso, Genoa (91 x 78 cm., inv. no. PR 130) and in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Bordeaux (60 x 42 cm, inv. no. M.6124); both these works by Giovanni Battista Beinaschi are dated to circa 1660-1661 (see V. Pacelli, F. Petrucci, Giovan Battista Beinaschi. Pittore barocco tra Roma e Napoli, Rome 2011, pp. 293-294, cat. nos. Ca1, Ca3).

Petrucci also dates the present painting to the 1660s on account of its stylistic affinities with the work of Giovanni Lanfranco, before the stylistic influence of Giacinto Brandi is apparent.

Giovanni Battista Beinaschi was born in Turin and initially studied in Piedmont. In 1652 he settled in Rome, where he became a student of Pietro del Pò, copying the frescoes of the Carracci in the Galleria Farnese and drawing the antique sculptures in the Vatican’s Belvedere. Beinaschi was deeply impressed by Lanfranco’s illusionism and also travelled to Parma to study the frescoes of Correggio. In 1664 he moved to Naples, where he drew inspiration from the painting of Luca Giordano and was also influenced by Mattia Preti’s sense of drama. In 1678 he returned to Rome in order to decorate the Chapel of Saint Barnabas in SS Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso. In the 1680s he established a large workshop, and he and his students Orazio Frezza and Giuseppe Castellano executed, among other works, a comprehensive series of the Life of the Virgin for S. Maria delle Grazie in Caponapoli in Naples.