Raphael: The deliverance of Saint Peter (1514)

(Apostolic Palace, Rome, Italy)

A fresco by the Italian artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (1483-1520). This fresco forms part of the Raphael's commission to decorate a set of rooms, now known as the ' Raphael Rooms' in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. This fresco is in the 'Room of Heliodorus' and shows a scene from the Acts of the Apostles. According to Acts 12:3–19, the apostle Peter was put into prison by King Herod Agrippa of Judea, but the night before his trial an angel appeared to him, and told him to leave. Peter's chains fell off, and he followed the angel out of prison. The scene itself refers to pope Julius II, the one who gave Raphael the commission, who as the titular cardinal of the church San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains) in Rome. Fresco from 1514.