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Delivery of the Keys
Pietro Perugino · Renaissance & Mannerism
- Artist
- Pietro Perugino (c. 1450–1523)
- Date
- 1481–1482
- Dimensions
- 335 x 550 cm
- Medium
- Fresco
- Location
- Sistine Chapel, Vatican City
This fresco on the wall of the Sistine Chapel shows Christ handing the keys of the kingdom of heaven to Saint Peter, the founding moment of the papacy according to Catholic tradition.
A closer look
In the foreground, Christ and Peter, kneeling, stand at the centre of a calm, stately row of apostles and contemporary figures. Behind them stretches a vast piazza paved in a perfect perspective grid, dotted with small figures acting out other Gospel scenes. At the far end rises an ideal, symmetrical domed temple flanked by two Roman triumphal arches, a vision of the harmony of Renaissance architecture. The picture's clarity and balance made it a model for later painters, including Perugino's pupil Raphael.