The Death of Simon Magus

12th century
Mosaic
Palatine Chapel, Palermo, Sicily

St. Paul kneels while St. Peter commands the demons to let Simon fall. This division of labor derives from the apocryphal Acts of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (post-4th century), where Paul tells Peter, "It is my part to bend the knee, and to pray to God; and thine to produce the effect." The two are in the same posture in a twelfth century restoration of an 8th-century fresco and in a mosaic in St. Mark's, Venice.

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