The Story
Christ Giving the Keys to Peter, 1600–1634. Pieter I de Jode (Flemish, 1570–1634), after Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640). Engraving. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Brenda and Evan H. Turner, 1992.201
Created in 1600 during the Late Renaissance/Mannerism period, this work belongs firmly within the religion & mythology tradition. Pieter I de Jode worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in engraving, measuring Unknown, the surface rewards close looking. Pieter I de Jode builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
