Delivery of the Keys
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About this painting
Matthew's Christ does not hand over the keys. He promises them: "I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Perugino paints the promise already executed. Two keys, gold and silver; the Vatican reads them as sovereignty, power conferred on Christ's first vicar on earth.
Behind, twice, Rome's Arch of Constantine: the emperor who legalised Christianity, his triumphal form set over the moment power changes hands. Popes are still elected in the Sistine Chapel.
And across the arches runs the patron's own name: Solomon's temple was richer, Sixtus IV's is holier.
Sources: italianrenaissance.org; TheArtStory (Peter J. Murray) · Cabinet (Oxford), Pietro Perugino, The Delivery of Keys to St Peter · Perugino 2023 (Archimede Arte / official quincentenary exhibition platform) · Musei Vaticani, Cappella Sistina, parete nord, 'Consegna delle chiavi'. · Sergio Rossi, 'La Sistina ri-svelata? Nuove precisazioni (e qualche scoperta) sugli affreschi quattrocenteschi', Acta/Artis. · Dr Shannon Pritchard, 'Perugino, Christ Giving the Keys of the Kingdom to St Peter', Smarthistory. · Musei Vaticani, 'Sistine Chapel', history of the chapel. · Matthew 16:19, Douay-Rheims (Challoner).
And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.
Matthew 16:19 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner), from the project’s own corpus at data/bible_drc.js
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 3,187 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.