Abstract
A study of Poussin's painting of Christ's charge to Saint Peter which offers a meditation on nature, faith and the unfolding of sacred history. Shows how Poussin employed the landscape setting and seemingly incidental figures to imbue the apparently conventional but deceptively meaningful painting with a broad sweep of sacred history. The author also considers the painting in the context of Poussin's two series of the Seven Sacraments and makes the case that the artist redefined the ambitions of narrative painting.