So i saw this painting the other day on my feed and i loved it and it made me laugh and i thought fuck it lets do a lil review of it cuz who doesn’t love hilarious looking gothic/renaissance paintings
This is called Saint Peter Martyr Exorcising the Devil Disguised as the Madonna and Child. Its by Antonio Vivarini and while i can’t find an exact date The Met Museum puts it at around 1450 so i’ll go with that i guess 🤷♀️
This would have been part of a series of paintings that would have surrounded a statue of saint peter. Not that peter - this is peter the martyr, peter of verona, the OTHER peter
It tells the story of peter going to the meeting of ppl converting away from catholicism and he goes along to find out wtf is going on why they all jumping ship. One guy tells him its cuz they’re being led by the OG madonna so he goes and he sees her too. But old petey boy is far too heterosexual to fall for this and clocks her cuz he can see she and her sprog have horns and are actually the devil in disguise and he offers her a piece of bread and tells her to eat the body of christ or whatevs and she’s all like ew carbs and fucks off back to hell
I love the composition of this with the darkness/shade in front of her and the light behind her (thnx petey boy for lighting the good lamp) and she’s working the room - she’s central to the image and ol’ pete is off to the side so she is the focus and she has no intention of sharing that with him. She’s out here turning her most colourful look for the runway in traditional religious colours for the Blessed Virgin and petey st pete is in black and white showing of his neutral and disciplined tones using that to draw ur eye from the xtravaganza of rich colours going on here.
And can we talk about the facial expression of that baby? They glare they are giving the beardy hipster who is such a good ally cuz he loves seeing #GirlsLikeUs on the podium and thats pretty much the only time he considers trans women outside of p0rnhub nightly viewing
The architecture is gr8 and the frame plays into that - its in a gold frame that is shaped like a church window so it gives u the feeling of lookin in like a lil peep show
This painting is a 10/10 for me its a triple threat its got looks, its got story and it gives u an experience beyond the image