V&A director Tristram Hunt on his favourite book of the Bible.
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Mt 16:18-19).
The Risen Christ addresses his disciples, presenting a humble man with an unexpect- ed gift. In doing so, he selects Peter as the foundation stone of the Church. Its familiarity never diminishes its importance; it remains as dramatic and theologically significant with each reading. At the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in South Kensington, we enjoy the great privilege of revisiting this momentous event with renewed visual power, animated through the masterful skill of Raphael’s expert hand.
For while the Vatican is home to the exquisite Acts of the Apostles tapestries, designed for the Sistine Chapel, depicting key episodes of the lives of St Peter and St Paul; at the V&A, we care for the original full-scale designs – or Cartoons – generously on loan from His Majesty The King. As so many art scholars have observed, the importance of the tapestries is equalled – or perhaps surpassed – by the influence of Raphael’s Cartoons on Christian thought and European art.
First lent by Queen Victoria to the museum in the aftermath of Prince Albert’s untimely death, they speak both to the importance of Raphael for the Prince Consort as a designer and the particular place of the Cartoons within the High Renaissance. Yet they are also, of course, a reminder of the centrality of biblical exegesis to so many UK museum collections – and we should not be afraid of exploring that inheritance.
Even among this set of seven surviving monumental drawings by Raphael and his studio, Christ’s Charge to Peter remains particularly powerful. We see Peter kneeling before a standing Christ as he grasps tightly the keys entrusted to him. Mean-while, Christ points to Peter, imbuing him with newfound consequence: a preëminence among the Apostles. We witness the Gospel of Matthew brought to life vividly before our eyes.
Through Christ’s Charge to Peter, we experience not only the extreme beauty of Raphael’s art, but to follow the words of Cardinal Vincent Nichols, also “the faith that inspired and illuminated it”. Raphael does not confine this particular design to the scripture of Matthew – inconvenient when determining one favourite biblical book. With his other hand, Christ gestures in the opposite direction towards the grazing flock in the background. In this moment, Christ also charges Peter to “Feed my sheep” (Jn 21: 17). Raphael has conflated the two events to strengthen the spiritual dimension of the scene and enliven its narrative power. Through careful perspective, exaggerated gesture and an unrivalled talent for static storytelling, Raphael focuses our eye and mind on this moment of deep religious significance. Interestingly, the tapestry of the Cartoon has a much more flamboyant set of robes for Christ, with added gold embroidery, allowing the weavers to display their skills.
By the time Pope Leo X had commission- ed the Acts of the Apostles tapestries in 1515, Raphael had already undertaken major commissions for the Church – most influentially, his frescoes for the Stanze, the new Vatican apartments for Pope Julius II. Patronage of the arts soared even further in breadth and scope under Leo. Still, his com-mission for Raphael’s tapestries became his most ambitious: an unrivalled celebration of the Church and papal authority.
Perhaps the most compelling of the Raph- ael Cartoons – and here we meet another Gospel – is The Miraculous Draught of Fishes. In Luke we read the story of the poor fishermen Simon Peter and Andrew, who “toiled all the night, and have taken nothing” (Lk 5: 5). Yet at Christ’s command, they return their empty nets to the Sea of Galilee. In Raphael’s vital scene, an impassioned and repentant Peter kneels in prayer before a seated Christ, who calmly raises his hand in blessing. All around them, their small boat overflows with a miraculous catch of fish.
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes shows the complex moment of revelation before Christ names Peter as “fisher of men”. One of art’s greatest storytellers has helped generation after generation to visualise the significance of Luke’s scripture, in all its theological weight and lasting consequence. But Raphael has also captured a scene charged with humility and intimacy. And in this clarity of expression and emotion, it is perhaps the most human and – to my mind – the most universally accessible of the Cartoons. This takes on even greater precedence for the V&A’s diverse visitors: of all faiths and none.
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