Christ's Charge to Peter

Raphael designed this Christ's Charge to Peter around 1515 as one of the tapestry cartoons for the Sistine Chapel. The scene of Christ entrusting the keys to Peter was the foundational image of papal authority, making it the most politically significant subject in the entire tapestry series commissioned by Pope Leo X. The tempera medium required careful preparation on a gessoed panel and a disciplined layering technique that produced precise, durable surfaces suited to the intricate detail expected of devotional painting.

The cartoon's composition achieves monumental grandeur through the dramatic gesture of Christ pointing to Peter against the backdrop of the gathered apostles, with the landscape opening to a vast atmospheric distance.