Drag the print to move it. The painting is shown at true scale; where its shape differs from the sheet the print has a paper border, not drawn here. Prints are sold unframed, and a frame here is only for planning.
The sheet at its true proportions, the rule and the doorway at the same scale. The painting is printed whole; where its shape differs from the sheet, the print has a paper border, drawn here.
Delivery of the Keys
1481–82 · Musei Vaticani — Cappella Sistina, parete nord, Storie di Cristo
Sizes
image 8.5×5.1 in on a 10×8 in sheet
The museum’s file supports 8×10 in at 375 dpi; a larger sheet would fall below our floor.
What is dpi?
Dots per inch: how many pixels of the museum’s file go into each inch of paper. Our floor is 240 for sheets up to 20 inches, 180 up to 36 inches and 120 beyond, because a larger print is seen from further away. We never offer a sheet below the floor, and the number on each size is the one you receive.
Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 308 gsm cotton rag · pigment inks · printed to order · sold unframed
Printed to order · the whole painting, never cropped · if it arrives damaged, we replace it
Shipping included in the price to the eight countries we ship to · dispatched in 2–4 working days · replaced if it arrives damaged, nothing to send back.
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Send as a gift
A printed card goes in the parcel with your message and the work’s museum record. No price is shown anywhere in the parcel. Enter the recipient’s address at checkout.
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Christmas: order by Sunday 13 December for delivery in the United States before Christmas.
Christmas: a gift certificate arrives by email the same day, and they choose the painting.
All editionsAbout this painting
Saint Peter kneels on a paved square, and Christ puts the keys into his hands. The Vatican Museums read them as sovereignty, power conferred on the first vicar of Christ on earth; one key is gold and one silver, the pair the theologian Molanus would later prescribe for Peter. Behind them the piazza runs far back, where the Vatican finds the tribute money and the attempted stoning played out in small, to the Temple of Jerusalem as a domed octagon between two copies of the Arch of Constantine, the emperor who legalized Christianity. Across the arches runs a Latin couplet that Maurizio Calvesi reads as praise of Sixtus IV: inferior to Solomon in riches, superior in devotion. Perugino painted it in 1481-82 on the chapel's north wall. The conclave still meets here, under these keys, to choose Peter's successor.
Sources: Musei Vaticani, Cappella Sistina, north wall, 'Handing over of the keys', read 2026-09-24 · Musei Vaticani, 'Sistine Chapel', history, read 2026-09-24 · Sergio Rossi, 'La Sistina ri-svelata? Nuove precisazioni (e qualche scoperta) sugli affreschi quattrocenteschi', Acta/Artis, read 2026-09-24 · Richard Stracke, 'Saint Peter: The Iconography', Christian Iconography (christianiconography.info)
And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.
Matthew 16:19 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner)