Finding the bodies of Saints Peter and Paul

Castiglione is regarded as one of the most innovative printmakers of the seventeenth century, and this is one of ten etchings by him from the Massar collection. Many of his prints address the transience of earthly endeavors, death, and decay. Castiglione was strongly influenced by Rembrandt’s prints and their tenebrism (from tenebroso, suggesting darkness), and he even sought out religious subjects that would be enhanced by a gloomy setting. This print depicts the vault on the Appian Way outside Rome in which the bodies of the two martyred saints were hidden. Here, a group of men stumble into the vault, almost clinging to one another in fear. In the lower left, we see a headless Saint Paul and Saint Peter still clutching his keys, illuminated by the light of a single torch.