Michele Lucchese (also known as Michele Greco) was an engraver and publisher active in Rome in the mid-16th century.
This rare impression of the Martyrdom of Saint Peter, published the Roman print publisher of French origin, Antoine Lafrery, reproduces in true orientation one of the two frescoes by Michelangelo Buonarroti in the Cappella Paolina in Rome.
In the cartouche at lower left, the author praises the artist is Latin, using the same terms as on another print, The Last Judgement, by Lucchese after Michelangelo: 'Michelangelo the Florentine, perfect in art; copied by the diligence of Michele Lucchese'. The print is dedicated to Cardinal Guido Ascanio Sforza, Pope Paul III's grandson.
A larger, engraved version of the subject, in reversed orientation and in a landscape format, was made by Giovanni Battista de' Cavalieri, a rare impression of which was sold at Christie's, London, on 10 December 2019, lot 20.
(See B. Barnes, Michelangelo in Print: Reproductions as Response in the Sixteenth Century, 2010, no. 66, p. 58, 114-5.)