The Vision of St Peter

In the 1550s the church of the Madonna dell'Orto, in the north of Venice, wanted painted doors for its organ. Venetian organs were often fitted with tall canvas shutters, kept closed to protect the pipes and opened when the instrument played, so what the congregation saw changed with the service. Tintoretto painted the outside with the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple. The inside held two saints, this Peter on one wing and the Beheading of Saint Paul on the other, which is why the canvas is so narrow and more than four metres high. Peter kneels in papal vestments while angels bring a huge cross down through the clouds toward him, a vision of the crucifixion he would one day suffer himself. One detail has drawn criticism, the golden key he holds low between his thighs. The shutters were later taken apart, and all three pictures still hang in the same church.