Ricardo Rivera Schreiber, Lima, Peru, by 1948, thence by descent;
Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Lady"), London, Christie's, 1 November 1991, lot 52 (as After the Pensionante del Saraceni);
Where acquired by the current collector.

L. Venturi, La Negazione di San Pietro di Michelangelo da Caravaggio, Rome 1948, pp. IX, XV-XVII, XXVIII, XXXIV, XXXXI, reproduced plate 1 (as Michelangelo da Caravaggio);
B. Nicholson, The International Caravaggesque Movement, Oxford 1979, p. 78 (as possibly a copy after Pensionante del Saraceni);
M. Wynne, Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 1985, p. 14, under cat. no. 5 (as a version);
B. Nicholson, Caravaggism in Europe, Turin 1990, vol I, p. 155 (as possibly a copy);
M.G. Aurigemma, "Il Pensionante del Saraceni," in I Caravaggeschi: Percorsi e protagonisti, Milan 2010, vol II, p. 560, under footnote 8 (listing it twice, as ex- Rivera Schreiber and also as ex-Christie's London 1991 [see provenance]).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work has not been recently restored. The canvas has an old glue lining which is still successfully supporting the paint layer. The paint layer is noticeably dirty. Under ultraviolet light, only a few tiny retouches are visible in the dark clothing of the figure on the right side, in the upper right corner and in the upper center of the background. The paint layer seems to be in very good state beneath the old varnish and dirt layer. There is no weakness or abrasion in the face of the figure on the right in particular. There is no reason why the work should not be fully cleaned, and the condition should be revealed to be excellent.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The mysterious figure of the “Pensionante del Saraceni” has remained one of the most elusive personalities of the early Italian Baroque, and one of the most compelling.  He was christened by Roberto Longhi after his strong stylistic connection to Carlo Saraceni, a Venetian artist in Rome, which appeared to the art historian to be so close as to suggest a formal relationship between the two artists.  Thus, Longhi baptized him the “Boarder” or “Pensionante” of Saraceni, suggesting that the two artists lived together, possibly as master and student.¹   As Longhi’s concept of the Pensionante’s artistic persona developed, he began to notice some French stylistic elements in his corpus, suggesting a possible identification to Jean Leclerc, a known student of Saraceni in Rome.²  While this hypothesis of a French connection has gained much support by subsequent art historians, some scholars have put forward Dutch or Flemish candidates.  What is clear, however, is that the small body of works that Longhi attributed to the Pensionante, and which has been augmented by later writers, is extremely high in quality, leading some of the current generation of art historians to revisit the artist’s connection with Saraceni himself (see below). Longhi began to develop his concept of the artist in 1939, and in 1943 he published a list of four paintings which formed a nucleus for later attributions: a Fruit Seller in the Detroit Institute of Fine Arts (inv. 36.10); a Fish Seller in the Galleria Corsini, Florence; A Poultry Seller in the Prado, Madrid (inv. P002235), and a Denial of Saint Peter in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome (inv. MV 40385).   Of this last composition, a number of replicas exist, suggesting in fact that the painting had a considerable success.  Longhi considered the “ur-canvas” of the artist to be the painting in the Vatican, but other examples have appeared, some with slight variations, but most of extremely high quality.  The National Gallery of Ireland acquired a version with an old Irish provenance in 1948, as “Attributed to Caravaggio.”  A painting formerly in the collection of Count Terzi in Rome and now in the Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai was first published by Brejon de Lavergnée and Cuzin in 1974.³

The present Denial of Saint Peter entered the discussion of the works of the Pensionante almost immediately.  It was first published by Lionello Venturi in 1948 in relation to the version in the Vatican, which had only been brought out of storage and shown in 1910.  While acknowledging Longhi’s attempt to isolate the work of the Pensionante, Venturi suggested instead that this painting was, in fact, the prime original, not the canvas in the Vatican, and in fact the work of Caravaggio himself.  Other essays in the book by Ettore Sestieri, Mario Modestini (who had restored the painting) and a preface by the still young Federico Zeri supported this attribution.  Subsequent scholars did not pick up this assertion, and the Denial of Saint Peter in all its versions remained linked to Saraceni and the Pensionante.  This painting was next published in 1979 by Nicholson in his lists of Caravaggist painters, as possibly a copy of the Vatican picture, but he knew the painting only from a black and white photograph in the Witt archive.  Indeed, the present Denial of Saint Peter remained in the same family since it was first published in 1948 until it was purchased by the current owner in 1991, and has thus remained largely unseen and unstudied. 

The interest in the Pensionante has continued unabated and more recent scholars have continued to examine his body of work.  It is now suggested that the originator of the composition of the Denial of Saint Peter was in fact Carlo Saraceni himself.  The idea was suggested by Alessandro Zuccari in 2010, who mused introspectively (in writing) if it was not Saraceni who had painted the Vatican canvas.⁴  In the same publication, Maria Giulia Aurigemma dealt with the issue more directly, and has asserted that the composition, despite its origins as the nucleus of the Pensionate, must be separated from the group. ⁵   In 2013, Zuccari agreed, and attributed the Vatican canvas with question to Saraceni (“Carlo Saraceni?”), while Michele Nicolaci tentatively attributed the Dublin Denial to “Carlo Saraceni e collaboratore?,” although expressing the still evolving nature of the Pensionante’s corpus.⁶  With this in mind, it is not unreasonable to think that there is more than one hand at work in the extant versions of the Denial of Saint Peter, although like the present example, the best (Vatican, Dublin, Douai) can all be dated to the middle of the second decade of the 17^th Century, while Saraceni was still in Rome, or soon after.  Which of these will remain in the Pensionante’s catalogue, and which will migrate with other paintings to another one of Saraceni’s very talented pupils, or to Saraceni himself, it is still premature to say.

1. The Pensionante is sometimes called the “Coinquilino del Saraceni” or the "Roommate of Saraceni." 
2.  It is known that Saraceni was associated with a number of French artists living in Rome, hence the idea of a French origin for the Pensionante.  These include Guy François (c.1578-1650), the aforementioned Jean Leclerc (1587/8-1633) and the François Walschartz (1597/8-1678/9), an artist from Liège.
3.  A. Brejon de Lavergnée and J-P. Cuzin, I Caravaggeschi Francesi, 1974, p. 242; Sold by Sotheby’s, New York, 30 May, 1979, lot 190.
4.  “se invece di un anonimo seguace non fosse lo stesso Carlo Veneziano, le cui doti tecniche e inventive sono comprovate dalla sua differenziata produzione, l’esecutore della Negazione di san Pietro della Pinacoteca Vaticana. (A. Zuccari, “Il caravaggismo a Roma. Certezze e ipotesi,” in I Caravaggeschi: Percorsi e protagonisti, Milan 2010, p. 47).
5.  M.G. Aurigemma, op. cit., p. 553-55, with images of the Vatican, Douai and Dublin Denials in comparison.
6.   A. Zuccari, catalogue entry on the Vatican Denial, no. 61, pp. 306-9, and M. Nicolaci, “Il ‘Pensionante del Saraceni’. Storiografia di un enigma caravaggesco,” p. 372, reproduced, fig. 1, both in Carlo Saraceni. Un veneziano tra Roma e l’Europa, exhibition catalogue, Rome 2013.