The Delivery of the Keys

Perugino was Raphael's teacher, and this fresco is the reason. The scene shows Christ handing the keys of the Kingdom to Peter — the theological cornerstone of papal authority. But look past the figures: the background is a mathematically ideal city square, receding to a domed temple flanked by two Arches of Constantine, laid out on a single vanishing point. It's thirty years before Raphael would make the same architectural argument in the School of Athens. Perugino taught him how. Now at Sistine Chapel (Vatican Museums), Vatican City @vaticanmuseums