,%20c.%201000_Munich,%20Bayerische%20Staatsbibliothek_MS%20Clm%204453,fol.%2060v.jpg) |
| Christ Questioning the Apostles and Giving the Keys to Peter From the Gospel Book of Otto III German (Reichenau), c. 1000 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek MS Clm 4453,fol. 60v |
“Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and
He asked His
disciples, “Whom do people say that the Son of Man is?”
They
replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others
Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to
them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter
said in reply,
“You are the
Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said
to him in reply,
“Blessed are
you, Simon son of Jonah.
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.”
Then He
strictly ordered his disciples
to tell no
one that He was the Christ.”
Matthew 16:13-20 (Gospel for the Twenty-first Sunday of the
Year, Year A)*
The important dialogue between Jesus and Peter that is related in this Gospel passage is one that has had profound importance for the
development of the Church. In it are
contained the basis for the position of Peter among his fellow Apostles, for
the primacy of Peter’s successors as Bishop of Rome in the authority of the
Church, for the power of the papacy to guide the Church through time. It is a passage that has been a problem for
some, particularly during the development of the Protestant confessions, but it
is one that has been celebrated frequently in Christian iconography from the
earliest times.
Images of the “giving of the keys” or the “remission of the
keys” or the “transfer of the keys” tend to fall into two principal types. There are those that appear to be primarily
symbolic, focusing only on the unadorned transfer of the keys from Jesus to
Peter and there are those that set this event in the context of the complete
Biblical passage. In addition, there are also a few
images that combine more than one Biblical text in their presentation of the
transfer. Usually, but not always, the
scene is distinguished from the related depiction of the dialogue between the
Risen Jesus and Peter on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in which Jesus asks
Peter three times “Do you love me?” and, upon Peter’s triple “You know I love
you”, tells him to “Feed my sheep” and “Feed my lambs”. Clearly these two scenes establish Peter’s
special responsibility for the direction of things following the Ascension, so
it is obviously valid to relate them to one another. And, finally, there are a few depictions that
are unusual in one way or another.
Symbolic Images
 |
| Christ Giving the Keys to Peter Mosaic from Mausoleum of Constantina Roman, mid-4th Century, ca. 350 Rome, Santa Costanza |
The earliest images, dating from the early Christian era
through much of the middle ages and even into the modern era, are primarily
symbolic images.
_1150-1200_Ivory_Met_Cloisters.jpg) |
| Christ Presenting the Keys to St. Peter and the Law to St. Paul German (Westphalia) Ivory, c. 1150-1200 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters |
Visually they represent
the transfer in a somewhat abstract manner.
There is no specific reference to location or setting of the narrative
in the Gospel. Usually the only figures
are Jesus and St. Peter, though occasionally there may be one or more disciples
standing nearby. This concentration of
figures into two or three distinguishes these images from the related “Traditio
Legis” images (see here), which are also symbolic in nature. In the Traditio legis images, which refer to
the last instruction of Jesus to His disciples just before the Ascension, there
are usually a larger number of figures, Christ is enthroned or is standing in
the “philosopher” pose. In the images of
the transfer of the keys, both figures are usually standing, facing each other,
and the keys are clearly being handed to Peter by Jesus.
These images begin to appear quite early, in fact shortly
after the emergence of Christianity as a favored religion of the Roman Empire,
i.e., in the middle of the fourth century, just a few decades after the issue
of the Edict of Milan (313AD) by Constantine I.
In the mausoleum known as Santa Costanza in Rome, built for the burial
of one of Constantine’s daughters, an apse mosaic offers the first depiction of
the event. In spite of the destruction
that occurred during the late antique and early medieval period, we can trace
it thereafter in a number of media:
manuscript painting, ivory carving, metalwork, sculpture and panel
painting.
 | ||
| Christ Presenting the Keys to Peter Enamel plaque English, c. 1170-1180 Paris, Musée du Louvre
|
_1200-1225_Egerton%20809,%20fol.%2041_BL_3.jpg)
 | |||
| Catalan Master of St. Mark. Christ Presenting the Keys to Peter from Breviari d'Amor by Matfre Ermengau of Beziers Spanish (Catalan), c. 1375-1400 London, British Library MS Yates Thompson 31, fol. 229r (detail)
|
They become less plentiful toward the end of the middle ages, but never disappear entirely.
 |
| Giovanni Battista da Cassignola, Christ Presenting the Keys to Peter Italian, 1569 Rome, Church of Sant'Agostino |
 |
| Dedication leaf, Christ Presenting the Keys to Peter from an Address by the Diocese of Cologne to the Pope German, 1848 Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana |
Narrative Images
The narrative images, which mainly (though not entirely) superseded symbolic images by the end of the middle ages, show from the beginning a greater emphasis on the complete text of the Gospel passage, including more disciples in the picture.
The narrative images, which mainly (though not entirely) superseded symbolic images by the end of the middle ages, show from the beginning a greater emphasis on the complete text of the Gospel passage, including more disciples in the picture.
 | |
|
 |
| Christ Presenting the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter From the Sermons of Maurice de Sully Italian, c. 1320-1330 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Francais 187, fol. 35v |
 | ||
| Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Christ Presenting the Keys to Peter From History Bible Dutch (Utrecht), ca. 1430 The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek MS 78 D 38 II, fol. 167r
|
 |
| Pietro Perugino, Christ Giving the Keys to Saint Peter Italian, c. 1481-1482 Vatican City, Apostolic Palace, Sistine Chapel |
The
culmination of this stage can be seen in the great fresco by Pietro Perugino
that adorns the mid-level wall of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. From this and the tapestry by Raphael that
also hung in the Sistine (see below) later generations of artists simply
repeated the formula.
 |
| Giambattista Castello, Christ Gives the Keys to Peter Italian, 1598 Paris, Musée du Louvre |
 | ||
| Ambrogio Buonvicino, Christ Presenting the Keys to Peter Italian, c. 1612-1614 Vatican City, St. Peter's Basilica
|
 |
| Palma Giovane (Palma the Younger) Italian, 1625 New York, Pierpont Morgan Library |
 |
| Nicolas Poussin, Ordination or Christ Giving the Keys to Peter From the first set of The Seven Sacraments French, c. 1636-1637 Fort Worth, Kimball Art Museum |
 |
| Pierre Bergaigne, Christ Gives the Keys to Peter French, 1675-1700 Lille, Musée des Beaux-Arts |
By the late
Baroque period much drama was added to the scene, including swirling clouds inhabited
by angels demonstrating their reactions to the events and sometimes holding
symbolic references to the papal office.
 |
| Giambattista Pittoni, Christ Giving the Keys of Paradise to Saint Peter Italian, c. 1730-1735 Paris, Musée du Louvre |
 |
| Matthaeus Guenther, Christ Presenting the Keys to Peter German, 1740 Mittenwald, Church of Saints Peter and Paul |
 |
| James Tissot, The Primacy of Peter French, c. 1888-1896 New York, Brooklyn Museum (Tissot shows the moment of Peter's statement, just before Jesus responds by confiding the keys.) |
Crossover Images
Along with the symbolic and narrative traditions there are images that combine the event described by St. Matthew and that described by St. John (John 21:15-19), that is the dialogue at the Sea of Galilee following the Resurrection. Often, it is hard to tell them apart, since they may or may not include the sheep. One thing is, however, constant in these images and distinct from images depicting the passage from Matthew. Jesus is always shown in his distinctively post-Resurrection garb. This is that He appears naked above the waist, except for a loosely draped cloth. These images all appear in the later, Baroque, period and draw their inspiration from Raphael’s beautiful tapestry design for the Sistine Chapel. For more on the tapestry designs, see here and here.
 | |
|
 |
| Otto van Veen, The Risen Christ Giving the Keys to Saint Peter Flemish, 1608 Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts |
 |
| Peter Paul Rubens, The Risen Christ Gives the Keys to Peter Flemish, c. 1613-1615 Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie |
 |
| Jan Boeckhorst, The Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter Flemish, c. 1660 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Unusual Images
There are also a few unusual images of the scene that I have
found in my review. One is by the
fifteenth century (Quattrocento) Venetian painter, Carlo Crivelli. It shows St. Peter receiving the keys not from
the adult Jesus in a real world setting, but from the Infant Jesus, seated on
His mother’s knees. The scene is clearly
shown as taking place in heaven, for mother and child are seated on a throne
and surrounded by saints who are bishops and what appear to be Franciscan
friars, one presumably being St. Francis and the other St. Anthony of
Padua.
 |
| Carlo Crivelli, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Italian, 1488 Berlin, Gemäldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
Finally, there is the unusual version of the scene created
in relief by Donatello, the great fifteenth-century Florentine sculptor. Donatello sets his depiction at the moment of
the Ascension. Jesus bends down to
transfer the keys from what appears to be a throne that is rising toward the
sky (indicated by its position relative to the trees and by the disciple who
gestures upward).
 |
| Donatello, Ascension with the Giving of the Keys Italian, c. 1428-1430 London, Victoria and Albert Museum |
Peter With the Keys
Of course, the keys are the great symbol of Peter’s
authority, frequently used throughout the history of western art. They are his primary iconographic symbol,
seen from the far West to as far East as Russia, a steady reminder of the power
to bind and to loose that was given to him by the Lord.
 |
| Anonymous Romanesque Sculptor, St. Peter The Egmond Tympanum Dutch, c. 1112-1132 Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum |
 |
| Theophanes, St. Peter Greek, c. 1388 Moscow, Cathedral of the Annunciation |
 |
| Fra Carnevale, Saint Peter Italian, c. 1450s Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera |
© M. Duffy, 2014, Images updated 2024
_______________________________________________________________________
Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States
of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986,
1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with
permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by
any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
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