Christ appearing to Saint Peter on the Appian Way (Domine, Quo Vadis?)

Saint Peter fled Rome after Christ’s crucifixion, scared that he too would be executed by the Romans; here, he stands in shock as Christ passes him on the road. When Peter asked Christ where he was going – the question in this painting’s title – he replied that he was headed to Rome to be crucified again. Shamed, Peter turned back to face his own martyrdom. The incident is described in the Golden Legend, a thirteenth-century compilation of the lives of the saints.

This private devotional painting was almost certainly commissioned from Annibale Carracci by Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, whose name-saint was Peter. In spite of the panel’s relatively small dimensions, its effect is highly monumental and the picture is characteristic of Carracci’s late, classical style.

Text: © The National Gallery, London

Painting photographed in its frame by Google Arts & Culture, 2023.