The fresco is on the north wall of the Sistine Chapel, up and to the right as the cardinals enter to choose their successor. It depicts a scene from the life of Jesus, as told in the Gospel of Matthew, painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Pietro Perugino in the 15th century.
Jesus, robed in blue, stands just left of center with his disciples in an open piazza, a temple in the background. Just right of center kneels his disciple Peter, reaching up to take what Jesus is handing him, the object of ultimate importance, signified by its placement at the exact center of the painting.
The keys of the kingdom of heaven.
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven,” Jesus tells Peter in the Gospel story.
With those words, one of the most enduring symbols in Christendom, the keys of St. Peter, was created, and the story of the papacy was born.
When the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church gathered for the conclave on Wednesday, they were more than simply casting votes for the Vatican’s next head of state. They were choosing the 267th successor of St. Peter, who, as ecclesiastical tradition teaches, was chosen by Jesus to be the first leader of the church.
