Two keys in Christ’s hand. A flock of sheep at his feet. An older apostle kneeling as if the weight of an institution is about to settle on his shoulders. Peter Paul Rubens’s Christ’s Charge to Peter (about 1616) looks like a Bible scene until you notice what he has done: he has fused two separate Gospel moments into one canvas, then hung that fusion over a Brussels tomb. The painting now lives free to the public in London’s Wallace Collection — but it was born as funeral furniture for a man who wanted his afterlife guarded by the keys of Heaven. Quick facts Artist: Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) Date: c. 1616 Medium: Oil on oak panel (139.2 × 114.8 cm) Collection: Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, London (Inv. P93) Notable fact: Commissioned for the tomb of Nicholas Damant in the church of St Gudule, Brussels; conflates Matthew’s Keys of Heaven with John’s “Feed my sheep” Peter Paul Rubens, ...