The Martyrdom of Saint Peter Martyr (Palma Vecchio)

The Martyrdom of Saint Peter Martyr is an oil-on-panel painting created c. 1526–1528 by the Italian Renaissance painter Palma Vecchio, now in the Museo d'arte sacra San Martino [it] in Alzano Lombardo.

It was his entry for the 1528 competition held by the confraternity of San Pietro to produce an altarpiece at Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, as did Titian (whose entry was destroyed by fire in 1867, though a print of it survives[2]) and Pordenone (whose entry survives in the Uffizi) and also shows the assassination).

Titian won the competition but the congregation of flagellants ("disciplini") in Alzano was looking for a work to be their high altarpiece for their new church dedicated to Saint Peter Martyr and showed interest in Palma Vecchio's work.

[4] Bernard Berenson identified the work as a Lorenzo Lotto from 1514–1515.

Lotto knew Palma well and may have acted as a link between the artist and the flagellants.