[3] In 1612, the painter Guido Reni left Rome for his native Bologna and on 9 March 1612 gave instructions to the engraver Luca Ciamberlano to collect the remainder of his fees from Reverenda Camera Apostolica for the frescos he had painted in the Borghese Chapel in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.

Summoned before the notary Simon Petrus Corallus, Ciamberlano offered "a painting by the hand of the late master Michelangelo da Caravaggio, which they say portrays the denial of St Peter with a maid."

[1] In 1798, Matthew Pilkington noted a painting in the Certosa di San Martino in Naples "by Caravaggio, representing the Denial of St. Peter, with figures at half-length and as large as life".

Bernardo de' Dominici described this painting in the third volume of his Vite dei Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti Napolitani (1742) as "a miracle of art, executed with such power of truth that it triumphs over whatever work is near it".

[8] Giovanni Pietro Bellori (1672) wrote "it depicts the serving maid pointing to Peter, who turns with open hands in the act of denying Christ; and it is painted in nocturnal light with other figures warming themselves at a fire ".

Shortly after the Second World War the present painting was purchased by Vincenzo Imparato Caracciolo of Naples on the Neapolitan art market as an anonymous work from an antiques dealer.

[2] In October 1609, Caravaggio was attacked by assailants at the Osteria del Cerriglio tavern in Naples, led by Giovanni Rodomonte Roero, the Conte della Vezza.

[1] Caravaggio crops the figures closely and smothers large areas in shadow in order to avoid any awkward depictions of human physicality.

[1] Appearing ominously in a 2014 episode of The Walking Dead, the painting is in Grady Hospital after being recovered outside of the High Museum in apocalyptic Atlanta.