Because of the time, the information we have on the painter is scarce. However, there is something certain:
Perugino carried on what Masaccio and others had been doing before, but he was able to place his painted forms in depicted space in a new and convincing way. Perugino began his work after he was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV reigned to paint part of a cycle of frescoes for the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
As far as the composition is concerned, the most striking element is line, through which Perugino almost left us with a textbook case study of one-point linear perspective.
While the series of horizontal lines divide foreground from background, the diagonal orthogonal lines create the appearance of depth as they converge at the vanishing point near the doorway of the building in the background.
The result is that the scene takes place on what appears to be a large grid which allows viewers to quite clearly ascertain the distance between figures in the foreground, middle ground, and background.
In addition, Perugino used aerial perspective to make the hills on either side of the temple appear to fade into the background. Both types of perspective help the viewer understand visually that the scene is anchored realistically in three dimensions, even though it was obviously painted on a two-dimensional picture plane.
The subject matter of the scene was taken from Matthew For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. In the fresco, Christ is shown in the middle, literally giving St. Also around them are figures in contemporary dress, who seem to witness the momentous event. Quite clearly, the handing of the keys to Peter is meant to frame the Catholic doctrine of apostolic succession by which Christ handed power to Peter, and hence onto the popes.
Christ and Peter are the figures of prime importance in this scene, and the importance of spiritual authority embodied in the keys is particularly emphasized by the key which hangs down vertically along the axis where the vanishing point is located.
The setting is a piazza, which is very spacious and airy. It is not a piazza from real life, but instead an idealized one with a temple in the middle of it. Aided by the grid-like ground pattern, we see separate groups of figures in the middle ground on both left and right sides of the piazza.
The looming structures in the background are particularly notable. The temple is centrally-planned and domed, presumably with eight sides. For pilgrims visiting the Holy Land, the Temple of Solomon was thought to be associated with the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, and so what we are seeing here is based on a similarly octagonal and domed form.
On either side of the temple, monumental arches stand decorated with reliefs and gilded surfaces. These are triumphal arches of the kind built by the ancient Romans. These particular arches, however, resemble one very specific arch built in Rome around A.
Constantine was the first emperor to legalize the profession of the Christian faith in the empire after centuries of Christian persecution by pagan emperors, and he was also the patron of the greatest churches of the late antique period.Christ Handing the Keys to Saint Peter is located in the Sistine Chapel, Rome.
The commission was given to Perugino because of his successful series of mural paintings for a chapel in the Old St Peter's Basilica in Rome. The giving of the keys to Saint Peter | Pietro Perugino | In the painting, we see Christ handling the keys of heaven to St. Peter, the first pope of the Catholic Church.
Around them, we see the 12 apostles, with a halo above their heads, mixed with other personalities of that time. Perugino, Christ Giving the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter, Sistine Chapel, , fresco, 10 feet 10 inches x 18 feet (Vatican, Rome) (view large public domain image here) The painting shows the moment when Christ, standing in the center dressed purple and blue garments, gives the keys of the heavenly kingdom to the kneeling St.
Peter. Christ Handing the Keys to Saint Peter is located in the Sistine Chapel, Rome. The commission was given to Perugino because of his successful series of mural paintings for a chapel in the Old St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Il Perugino | Christ Handing the Keys to St Peter Among Perugino's frescoes in the Chapel, the Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter is stylistically the most instructive.
This scene is a reference to Matthew 16 in which the "keys of the kingdom of heaven" are given to benjaminpohle.com [ 1 ]. Left side (detail), Perugino, Christ Giving the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter, Sistine Chapel, , fresco, 10 feet 10 inches x 18 feet (Vatican, Rome) In the middle-ground, the figures are much smaller than those in the foreground, suggestive of their spatial distance.