Saint Peter's daydream

Information

The inscription beneath the saint’s arm, “Act 10”, refers to the tenth story in the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament.  This painting shows various moments in a diagonal composition that gives priority to narrative space.  To the right, an angel commands the centurion Cornelius to send men to Peter.  At the centre, Cornelius calls two servants, while Peter, in the foreground, is plunged into a daydream.  It is a religious scene that accords space to the landscape, in a composition whose pictorial proceedings give the impression of depth:  an upward point of view, a spread-out design, and the principle of three tones with warm colours in the foreground, cool bluish ones in the distance, and greens in the centre.