Handover of the keys (Perugino)
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| Handover of keys |
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| Perugino and Helpers , approx. 1481–1482 |
| fresco |
| 335 × 550 cm |
| Sistine Chapel , Vatican City |
The handover of the keys or Christ hands over the keys to Peter is a 335 x 550 cm fresco that Pietro Perugino created with helpers in the years 1481–1482. It is part of the middle row of images in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican .
history
In 1480 Perugino worked in Alt-St. Peter , where he fitted out a chapel with frescoes on behalf of Sixtus IV , so that he immediately received the new order to decorate the rebuilt Papal Chapel, which was later named Sistine Chapel in honor of the Pope. In this project he was soon assisted by a team of Florentine painters sent by Lorenzo de Medici .
The theme of the decoration was the typological correspondence between the story of Moses and that of Jesus Christ , the continuity between the Old and the New Testament and the transfer of the divine law from the tablets of the law to the message of Jesus. By handing over the keys of the kingdom of heaven to the disciple Peter ( Mt 16 : 18-19 EU ), Jesus legitimized the power, authority and infallibility of his followers, i. H. the Popes. The painters of the Sistine Chapel adhered to common pictorial conventions in order to make the work homogeneous. B. the use of the same scales, rhythmic structures and landscapes; they used a uniform color scale and gold decorations to illuminate flames from torches and candles.
Perugino painted at least six scenes, three of which have survived, with the help of numerous helpers that the size of such a work required, including the young Pinturicchio .
Description and style
The scene of the handing over of the keys , the fifth on the north wall from the altar, is of fundamental importance for the topic dealt with in the picture cycle, because it underlines the transfer of the spiritual authority from Christ to the apostle Peter and legitimizes the papal primacy . The fresco, which is one of the most famous of the series from a purely aesthetic point of view, is connected to the opposite side, with the punishment of the rebellious Korachites by Moses von Botticelli , which further clarifies the message desired by Sixtus IV: on the one hand it shows the basis of the power of the Successors of Peter, on the other hand it shows the punishment that is bestowed on anyone who dares to contradict him.
The scene is divided into two horizontal areas: one with the figures in the foreground and one with the architectural background populated by a few much smaller figures. In the foreground, Christ gives the kneeling Peter the gold and silver keys of Paradise, surrounded by other apostles, including Judas (fifth figure to the left of Christ, with purse), recognizable by the halos and portraits of contemporaries, including an alleged self-portrait of Perugino in the black-clad man who looks at the viewer in the group on the right. Above the Perugino fresco there is the inscription CONTVRBATIO · IESV · CHRISTI · LEGISLATORIS (“ Hostility to the Lawgiver Jesus Christ”), which is followed by the inscription CONTVRBATIO · MOISI · LEGIS · SCRIPTAE · LATORIS (“ Hostility to Moses, the giver of the written law “) Above the picture opposite.
Famous is the landscape that extends the main scene, framed by the perspective lines of a floor with large marble fields on a square decorated with monumental buildings. The main focus is on a magnificent building with a central body and a dome, a symbol of the universality of papal power itself and an ideal implementation of the Temple of Jerusalem : it was also used in the marriage of the Virgin in Caen with the even more scenic variant of the Reused central door that lets you see the landscape. This surprising architectural vision, which expresses the ideals of the classical perfection of the Renaissance, was taken up by Perugino's students such as Pinturicchio in the Bufalini chapel and, above all, Raphael in the famous Marriage of Mary in the Pinacoteca di Brera , until Bramante turned it into an architectural one Replica in the Tempietto di Bramante incorporated.
There are also two replicas of the Arch of Constantine on both sides of the square , a homage to the passion for antiquity that shaped the art world around the Eternal City in those years. Such a rational and systematic arrangement makes it difficult to notice that there are intentional or unintentional errors in the proportions between the figures in the foreground and background. This is particularly evident in the order of magnitude between the figures in the middle volume (which represent the two episodes from the life of Christ of the payment of taxes and the stoning of Christ) and the figures in the buildings, according to the floor slabs that separate them, should be even smaller. The lively agility of the secondary scenes disappears, however, when one looks at the quiet expressions of the characters in detail and recognizes the inability of the painter to convey a drama as if the characters were nothing more than actors, with gestures that are not really alive.
If you look at the procession of the figures in the foreground, you can see how the various postures are repeated rhythmically in order to create a varied but orderly course that is defined as "musical". The heavy drapery of some of the figures is based on Verrocchio , so that it often shows the typical "wet effect" of the Florentine master. Above all, the elegant figure of the apostle John , the first to the right of Peter, seems to be based on the bronze Christ of the unbeliever Thomas von Verrocchio in Orsanmichele . Other draperies, on the other hand, fall with rhythmic folds, with a multitude typical of the artist.
The landscape that completes the background is typical of the artist, with the rolling hills littered with slender trees that fade into the distance towards the horizon and, thanks to the precise atmospheric depiction through the color perspective, convey the feeling of infinite space.
literature
- Vittoria Garibaldi: Pittori del Rinascimento . Scala, Florence 2004, ISBN 88-8117-099-X , Perugino.
Web links
- Description of the image ( English ) Retrieved on December 27, 2018th