Peter heals a lame man

Cimabue's fresco of Peter Healing a Lame Man in the upper church at Assisi, painted around 1277, depicts the apostolic miracle from Acts 3 as part of the nave's cycle of scenes from the lives of Saints Peter and Paul. The Acts of the Apostles cycle was a deliberate assertion of papal authority, as the Franciscan basilica was under direct papal patronage and Peter's healing ministry prefigured the Church's sacramental power. Cimabue's narrative approach, with its attention to architectural setting and crowd reaction, anticipates the revolutionary storytelling of Giotto's later frescoes in the same building.

Executed in buon fresco with secco detail work, the composition uses a classical architectural backdrop to frame the miracle scene, creating a sense of spatial depth unusual for the period. Cimabue's modeling of the figures through broad tonal contrasts gives them a monumental presence, though the fresco has suffered significant deterioration over the centuries.