Christ's Charge to Peter

Albert took considerable interest in Raphael’s cartoons for the Sistine Chapel tapestries commissioned by Pope Leo X; the seven surviving cartoons had been treasures of the Royal Collection since their acquisition by Charles I in 1623. In the first part of Victoria’s reign they hung at Hampton Court, and Albert was keen that a more suitable location be found for them to ensure their preservation and enable greater public accessibility to them. This did not happen during his lifetime, but in 1865 Queen Victoria gave them on loan to the South Kensington (now the Victoria & Albert) Museum in tribute to her beloved husband, where the cartoons remain today.