The Trinity in Glory and the Martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul

Palma made this around 1614, and he splits it into two worlds stacked over each other. Below are the deaths of the two saints Rome built its church on, Peter and Paul, both executed in the city under the emperor Nero. Tradition gives each a different end, and Palma keeps them apart. Peter is crucified, by old accounts asking to hang head downward because he felt unworthy to die exactly as Christ had, while Paul, being a Roman citizen, is beheaded with the sword. Above the violence the sky opens on the Trinity, the Father, Christ and the dove of the Holy Spirit. For all that they died apart and by different means, the Church long kept the two together, honouring both on the same day, the 29th of June.