Saints Peter and John Healing the Lame Man

Nicolas Poussin, French, Les Andelys 1594–1665 Rome · 1655
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Marquand Fund, 1924; acc. 24.45.2)

Nicolas Poussin, a Frenchman who spent most of his life in Rome, painted this canvas in 1655. He set the scene like a stage: broad temple steps, massive columns and clean-cut buildings, with the figures placed across it in a measured rhythm.

In the middle, Peter reaches out his hand to the lame man sitting on the steps, while young John beside him points upward. Around them life goes on: a beggar woman with a child, a woman with a basket on her head, people coming and going.

From the text

Peter and John going up to the temple (Acts 3:1)

The lame man at “the temple gate called Beautiful”, begging (Acts 3:2–3)

“Taking him by the right hand, Peter helped him up” (Acts 3:7)

The artist’s own

The temple as a Roman building of huge columns and steps

John pointing upward as Peter takes the man’s hand

Other beggars and passers-by on the steps

Each figure in a robe of one strong colour

Details

The hand

Peter stretches out his hand to the man, who reaches up to him.

Pointing up

John raises one finger towards the sky.

The lame man

Thin and half-dressed, he sits on the steps and looks up.

Another beggar

Lower down, a woman with a child holds out her hands.

The temple

Massive columns stand at the temple gate.

A basket

A woman carries a basket on her head.

Nicolas Poussin, French, Les Andelys 1594–1665 Rome. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Marquand Fund, 1924; acc. 24.45.2) · Oil on canvas · Public Domain — The Met Open Access (CC0). The Met Collection API record: "isPublicDomain": true; The Met marks such works on its website "with the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) icon".

The verses

Acts 3:1–10One afternoon Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those entering the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked directly at him, as did John. “Look at us!” said Peter. So the man gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” Taking him by the right hand, Peter helped him up, and at once the man’s feet and ankles were made strong. He sprang to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and leaping and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the man who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.