''The Denial of Peter'' is a 1660 painting by
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...
, now in the
Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...
in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
. It depicts the
denial of Peter, an event in the
Passion of Jesus.
After the
Last Supper, Jesus has been
arrested, and taken to the house of the
high priest
The term "high priest" usually refers either to an individual who holds the office of ruler-priest, or to one who is the head of a religious caste.
Ancient Egypt
In ancient Egypt, a high priest was the chief priest of any of the many gods rever ...
Caiaphas for
trial by the Sanhedrin. The
apostle Peter
An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to send off". The purpose of such sending ...
has gone after Jesus, where a servant woman had recognised him as one of Jesus's followers. Peter in a white robe gestures his denial, as two armed guards observe to the left. In the background, Christ looks over his shoulder as he is led away to
Pilate's court
In the canonical gospels, Pilate's court refers to the trial of Jesus in praetorium before Pontius Pilate, preceded by the Sanhedrin Trial. In the Gospel of Luke, Pilate finds that Jesus, being from Galilee, belonged to Herod Antipas' jurisdict ...
.
The painting measures . It is signed and dated, "Rembrandt 1660".
[Rijksmuseum](_blank)
/ref>
Rembrandt never made a journey to Italy, as many of his contemporaries did. It is therefore thought that his treatment of themes such as the ''Denial'' derived substantially from prints based on foreign works. In this case there are two engravings, both based on paintings by the Flemish artist Gerard Seghers
Gerard Seghers[Gerard Seghers]
at the Schelte a Bolswert
Schelte a Bolswert (1586–1659) was a leading Dutch engraver, noted for his works after Rubens and Van Dyck.
Life
He was born in the town of Bolswert, in Friesland, in 1586. Both he and his older brother, Boetius à Bolswert, worked in Amster ...
,British Museum
/ref> the second an engraving by Giovanni Antonio de Paoli.Catherine II of Russia
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...
in 1781. It remained in the collection of the Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the list of ...
in St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
until it was sold secretly with other works by the government of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. It was bought by the Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...
in Amsterdam in 1933.