Detail of the Fulda Portable Altar: The Traditio Legis and Traditio Clavum

Christ, in the circle, gives the keys with his right hand to St. Peter and the Law with his left to St. Paul. In the iconographic program of the altar top, Christ's sacrifice on the cross, signified typologically by the images of Abraham and Isaac in the bottom register and by Melchizedech and Aaron in the middle, is the basis of the authority he hands on to Peter and Paul in the top register, an authority that is then handed along to Christian bishops, represented on the left and right by Saints Blaise and Nicholas.

View the entire altar.
Read more about the Traditio Legis.

Photographed at the museum by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.