Christ's charge to Peter

A photograph of the tapestry illustrating 'Christ's Charge to Peter' now in the Vatican Museums. With Alinari's blind stamp at lower right. With annotations on the back. Not in Ruland (1876).

The central scene illustrates Christ's charge to St Peter (Matthew 16:18-19; John 21:15-17). Beneath is a fictive relief depicting scenes from the life of Pope Leo X. The central scene is flanked by two vertical panels with grotesque decoration, incorporating various motifs including the Medici arms and the papal insignia of Leo X. The right-hand panel is generally known as the 'Border of the Three Fates'.

The photographed tapestry is one from a set of ten depicting episodes from the lives of St Peter and St Paul, commissioned by Pope Leo X in 1514-15. The tapestry designs were executed by Raphael and his studio and transported to Flanders, where the tapestries were woven in the Brussels workshop of Pieter van Aelst. Seven of the tapestry cartoons survive, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum on loan from the Royal Collection. The ten original tapestries, intended to be hung in the Sistine Chapel, are housed in the Vatican Museums.