Saint Peter

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by the Monogrammist HB. It shows the character of St. Peter standing in a rural landscape. He is holding a large key in his right hand (the feature by which we recognise him) and is reading a book held open in his left hand. He is wearing thick drapery and one of his bare feet is visible below it. He is standing turned slightly towards the right, and he has a halo of lines emanating from his head. To the left is a tree and in the right background is a church and town on a hillside. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "No. 33 MONOGRAMMIST HB (Saxon School, about 1530) ST. PETER Museo Civico, Pavia. Pen and sepia, washed with Indian ink. 20.3 x 15.2 cm. (8 x 6 in.) St. Peter stands, holding a book in his left and the keys in his right hand. Landscape background. This drawing belongs, with No. 34, to an imperfect set of Apostles at Pavia. The others preserved are St. Bartholomew (three-quarter face to right, holding one handle of a long two-handled saw, which rests on the ground). The technical execution and the character of the landscape background are entirely uniform throughout the series; the two drawings not published here contain distant mountains and in each case a severed tree-trunk, still rooted in the earth, on the left side. The foliage is exactly similar to that in the drawings reproduced. The only one of the set that contains a signature is the St. John. For a discussion of the monogram see the note on the following plate. C. D."