The Sacrifice at Lystra

This is not really a painting made to hang. It is a full-size design, a cartoon, that Raphael drew so that weavers in Brussels could turn it into a tapestry. Pope Leo X commissioned the set in 1513 for the lowest walls of the Sistine Chapel, beneath Michelangelo's ceiling, and Raphael filled them with scenes from the lives of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Here the apostles Paul and Barnabas have arrived in the town of Lystra and healed a lame man. The townspeople take them for gods come down to earth and rush to sacrifice an ox in their honour, while Paul, in red, tears his clothes in horror at the mistake. Seven of the ten cartoons survive, and they have hung in this London museum, on loan, since 1865.