The Tears of Saint Peter

Look at the way the figure is built. The body is elongated in the manner El Greco learned in Venice and took to extremes in Toledo, so that the saint seems to stretch upward toward the light he is looking at. The face is painted with quick, nervous strokes; the hands are knotted together; the yellow cloak and blue tunic are laid on in broad, flickering patches that catch the light. The sky is stormy and the light on the saint's forehead is cold and silver. Everything in the picture pulls toward the upper corner, toward the heaven Peter is pleading with.

The Soumaya's El Greco is one of the most important old master paintings in Mexico, and it hangs on the floor devoted to European and colonial painters, where it sits alongside Tintoretto, Murillo and the artists of New Spain who learned from them. It matters because El Greco is rare outside Spain and because this subject, the weeping Peter, became a model for countless later images of penitence. The memorable detail is the ivy on the rock, a symbol of faithfulness, painted with the same nervous energy as the saint's tears.

Did You Know? El Greco painted the weeping Saint Peter at least six times; the subject was a favourite of the Spanish Counter Reformation.