Saint Peter

Peter holds the keys Christ gave him, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, but Costa has made them strangely thin and long, and made Peter himself younger, slimmer and taller than he usually appears. He raises his other hand in blessing. He was given the place of honour at the Virgin's right hand because the oratory in Faenza for which the altarpiece was made was dedicated to him. At the inner edge of the panel, stone steps climb toward the centre. They belong to the Virgin's throne, and the landscape behind Peter once ran on behind her. By 1505 separate panels were an old-fashioned choice for Costa, who since the early 1490s had painted his altarpieces as single pictures. The National Gallery suspects the patrons asked for it, and a tall centre with lower sides was a layout Faenza particularly liked.