Apostles Peter and John Healing the Sick

This 1575 panel at the Hermitage Museum depicts the episode from the Acts of the Apostles in which Peter and John heal a lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. Painted the year of Pieter Aertsen's death, it represents his sustained engagement with sacred narrative even at the end of a career dominated in public perception by genre and market subjects. The Acts of the Apostles scenes were relatively uncommon in Flemish painting compared with Gospel narratives, and Aertsen's choice of this subject may reflect post-Tridentine interests in depicting the early church as a model for contemporary Christian practice. The Hermitage panel demonstrates his late style: broader handling, simplified crowds, and a directness of expression that differs from the busy complexity of his market scenes.

The late panel technique is characteristically economical — fewer figures, broader handling, a simplified spatial setting that concentrates attention on the central healing gesture. Peter's outstretched hand toward the lame man is the compositional focal point, rendered with precise anatomical observation. The crowd's reaction is expressed through body posture rather than detailed facial expression.