The Death of St. Peter Martyr

Here, Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo depicted the final moments in the life of Saint Peter Martyr, a 13th-century Dominican friar who was murdered by Cathar heretics whom he wished to reconvert to Catholicism. By choosing a three-quarter-length format, Savoldo focused attention on the contrasting emotional states of the serenely resigned saint and his elegantly brutish assailant.

Savoldo lived in Venice but had ties to the city of Brescia in nearby Lombardy. He created a darkly poetic style by investing the Lombard artistic tradition of literal realism with the rich textural and atmospheric effects of Titian and other Venetian painters.