The Assassination of St. Peter Martyr

Oil on panel
Church of Sant'Eustorgio, Milan

In the center the assassin Pietro da Balsamo cleaves St. Peter's skull with what the inquest described as "a falchion, whose blade ends in two horns, like the moon." The artist has added a second assassin with a knife, to account for the finding in the inquest that there was a second blow with a dagger and a second victim, one Fra Domenico (pictured here on the left).

Before he expires, Peter writes the word credo ("I believe") in the dirt with his finger.

My field notes identify the artist as "Cristoforo Bossi," but at present I can find no record of any artist of that name.

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Photographed at the chapel by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.