Title: Christ’s Charge to Peter; Date: 1515-1516; Artist: Raphael (1483-1520); Building: Victoria and Albert Museum; City/Town: London; Country: United Kingdom; Scripture: Matthew 16:13-20 & John 21:1-19. Notes: “From the fifth century the two events depicted here were sometimes conflated. At Caesarea Philippi, Christ addresses his disciples and says to Peter: ‘I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.’ After the Resurrection he appears to seven of the disciples at the sea of Tiberias and charges Peter : ‘Feed my sheep.’ These two texts from the Gospels were the most important scriptural justifications of papal authority. They emphasize that Christ selected Peter as the foundation stone of the Church, and demonstrate his pre-eminence among the Apostles.Here, Christ gestures with one hand towards the flock of sheep and with the other to the kneeling figure of Peter, at the head of the solid phalanx of Apostles. The focal point of this dramatic composition is Christ’s pointing finger, which invests Peter with leadership of the Church.
The Raphael Cartoons were commissioned by Pope Leo X in 1515 and are among the greatest treasures of the High Renaissance. Painted by Raphael (1483-1520) and his assistants, they are full-scale designs for tapestries that were made to cover the lower walls of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel. The tapestries depict the Acts of St Peter and St Paul, the founders of the early Christian Church.” This image and descriptive text may be used per our standard terms below, through May, 2019, per © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.