The Sacrifice at Lystra

A photograph of the tapestry of The Sacrifice at Lystra (Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 14, 8-18) now in the Vatican Museums (inv. no.43874). With Alinari's blind stamp at lower right, and annotations on the back. Not in Ruland (1876). Below the central scene is a horizontal border depicting stories from the Acts of the Apostles flanking Medicean emblems (at centre); the vertical border at left incorporates various motifs.

The photographed tapestry is one from a set of ten illustrating stories 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 workshop of Pieter van Aelst. Seven of the tapestry cartoons survive (including that of The Sacrifice at Lystra), 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.