Liberation of Saint Peter
Historical Context
Murillo's Liberation of Saint Peter of 1665-1667 at the Hermitage Museum depicts the miraculous release described in Acts 12 — an angel appears to Peter in his prison cell, the chains fall away, and he is led to safety through sleeping guards. The subject suited Murillo's gifts perfectly: the celestial light penetrating the prison darkness, the contrast between the angel's luminous beauty and Peter's aged captive figure, the emotional pivot from imprisonment to freedom that the moment embodies. His mastery of supernatural light — the divine radiance that enters dark spaces and transforms them — was one of his most consistent technical achievements, developed across dozens of celestial visions and angelic visitations. Catherine the Great's agents acquired this painting for the Hermitage as part of her comprehensive program of European art collection, which made the St. Petersburg institution one of the world's great repositories of Western Baroque painting. The Hermitage's Murillo holdings, assembled through her collecting, give the museum extraordinary coverage of Spanish seventeenth-century religious painting.
Technical Analysis
The angel's luminous figure illuminates the sleeping guards and the awakening Peter, with Murillo's soft, atmospheric technique creating a convincing vision of supernatural radiance within the dark prison.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the angel's luminous figure penetrating the darkness — Murillo's mature supernatural light effects at their most dramatic.
- ◆Look at the sleeping guards — their oblivious slumber contrasting with the supernatural activity happening around them.
- ◆Observe the awakening Peter, his face registering the transition from sleep to astonishment as the divine liberation becomes real.
- ◆Find how Murillo's soft, atmospheric technique makes the angel's light convincing — not a spotlight but a natural-seeming luminosity emanating from the celestial figure.
