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The scene shows the apostle Peter as an angel rescues him from prison and leads him past the sleeping Roman guards. The story is taken from The Acts (12, 3–11). It took place in Jerusalem, where King Herod had ordered that the apostle be thrown into prison.

The style of the painting is fairly characteristic of Federiko Benković, inter alia also because of a special presentation of Piazzetta’s way of painting, but with brushwork which is more flowing and painterly, while the composition is more intense and dramatic.

The painting belongs to the artist’s late period.

Artist Federiko Benković

Year of creation (before 1750)

Technique oil, canvas

Dimensions 98 x 131 cm

Inventory number NG S 1312, National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana

Collection 1700–1800

Restored: 1957; 1981, Štefan Hauko.
Provenance: Gallery of the Counts of Attems, Graz, Inv. No. 1042(?); probably brought to Attems Castle in Slovenska Bistrica; confiscated 1945; FCC, 1945.
Exhibitions: 1960, Ljubljana, No. 124; 1983, Ljubljana, No. 42; 1985, Belgrade, No. 26; 1993, Budapest, No. 8.
Lit.: Hrvatska enciklopedija, II, Zagreb, 1941, II, Fig. 78a; Prijatelj 1952, pp. 17, 20, 35, 40, 56, 60, 65, 67, 69, Fig. 18; Enciklopedija, I, 1959, p. 329 (text Duško Kečkemet and Lela Boćarić); Cevc 1960, p. 44, Cat. No. 124; Jonescu 1966, p. 270; Palluchini 1982, pp. 110–111, Cat. No. 157 (a beautiful painting in Piazzetta’s style, perhaps by Giuseppe Angeli); Enciklopedija Jugoslavije, I, 1983, p. 583 (text Kruno Prijatelj); Zeri [& Rozman] 1983, pp. 125–126, Cat. No. 42, Fig. 44; Mollenhauer Hanstein 1986, pp. 100–101, Fig. 26 (Giuseppe Angeli); Krückmann 1988, pp. 337–338 (Giuseppe Angeli); Lipoglavšek-Cimperman 1992, pp. 127–128, Fig. on p. 128; Tomić 1992, pp. 404, 416 (perhaps Giuseppe Angeli); Baroque Art 1993, pp. 149–150, Cat. and Fig. No. 8 (text Klára Garas).