Martyrdom of St. Peter Martyr 1490

This fresco, ‘Martyrdom of St. Peter Martyr’, was painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio in Florence, using pigments applied to fresh plaster. Here, Ghirlandaio uses a traditional technique, one requiring not only artistic skill, but also the physical labor of preparing the wall surface. The process begins with layering of rough plaster, followed by the ‘arriccio’, a smooth base for the final layer. Then, the artist quickly applies the ‘intonaco’, painting the image before the plaster dries - hence the term ‘fresco’, or ‘fresh.’ The very act of creating the fresco mirrors the subject matter: intense action frozen in time, a fleeting moment of violence rendered permanent. The material qualities of the fresco – its durability, its embeddedness in the wall – give the scene a sense of weighty permanence. Considering the labor-intensive nature of fresco painting alongside the brutal narrative, the artwork challenges conventional notions of what constitutes high art, and what the artistic process entails.