Liberation of Saint Peter

Rafaello Sanzio da Urbino, or commonly known as Raphael was an Italian painter and architect with a penchant for archaeology. He is considered as one of the great artists of the High Renaissance work along with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. The painting, ‘Liberation of Saint Peter’ was one of the many fresco paintings created by Raphael when he was invited to Rome by Pope Julius II. These paintings later came to be known as the Vatican ‘Raphael Rooms’ to honour his excellent artworks. In this particular painting, Raphael has divided the whole biblical event into three compositions. The first one, which starts from the left depicts the soldiers being alarmed by the sudden commotion and inquiring about the prisoner, Saint Peter. Here, Raphael has very cleverly painted the ray of light coming from three different sources: the moonlight is radiating, the early sunset right below and the torch lit in the hand of a soldier. The centre scene describes the arrival of the Angel to free the prisoner, who is chained to two soldiers. However, miraculously or as interpreted to be the Divine guidance, the soldiers have fallen unconscious. Thus, liberating St. Peter. Raphael, in order to create that divine effect or perhaps showcase the arrival of the angel as the Lord’s will has presented a golden, halo behind the angel’s figure (a religious symbol in fact). Lastly, the right fresco painting concludes the episode with the deliverance of St. Peter with the help of Divine intervention. If you carefully observe this section, you might notice one special skill of Raphael’s work and that is how he has painted the radiance of the angel bouncing off the lying soldier’s body and reflecting upon the face of the Saint. Before this, the figure of the prisoner was showcased in darkness. After his liberation, he has finally been graced with the light of the Lord, as intended in the artwork. This painting can justly be considered as one of the best works of Raphael. This painting is the last fresco in the ‘Stanze di Eliodoro’ that can be attributed to him. After this, the fresco cycles later that were commissioned to him were entrusted mainly to his assistants. It is a known fact that fresco paintings are done upon the wet lime plaster before it dries up which usually takes up to four hours. Within that amount of time, painting figures in the dark is quite difficult and yet Raphael did that task with exceptional talent, time and again proving why he is considered of the best.