189.
Tapestry Wall-hanging; design, our Lord giving the power of the keys to St. Peter, after Raphael’s cartoon. English (probably from Soho), 17th century. 17 feet 1 inch by 12 feet.
The point of time chosen by the great Roman painter is that indicated by St. Matthew, xvi. 18, 19; for St. Peter holds the keys promised him by his divine Master, at whose feet he alone, of all the apostles, is kneeling. Behind our Lord is a large flock of sheep, as explanatory of the pastoral power bestowed, after His uprising from the grave, by our Saviour upon St. Peter more especially, to feed the sheep as well as lambs in His flock, as we read in St. John, xxi. 16, 17: both subjects are naturally connected.
By the many engravings, but, more particularly, the fine photographs of the original cartoon, once at Hampton Court, now in this Museum, this subject is well known. In this especial piece, the colouring, being so badly graduated and garish, is by no means as good as in the earlier one, still to be seen in the Gallery of the Tapestries at the Vatican. Here, the tone of our Lord’s drapery is not distinguishable from the stony hue of the wool upon the sheep behind Him.