Domine, Quo Vadis?

painting by Carracci

Also known as: “Christ Appearing to Saint Peter on the Appian Way”(Show More)

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July 18, 2026

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"Domine, quo vadis?" is a Latin phrase meaning "Lord, where are you going?". It originates from the apocryphal Acts of Peter, where Saint Peter, fleeing persecution in Rome, encounters the risen Christ returning to the city to be crucified again.12

Annibale Carracci, a prominent Italian painter of the Carracci family, created a painting titled Domine, Quo Vadis? around 1601-1602. This work is noted for its weighty figures and dramatically simple compositions, reflecting Carracci's influential style that helped revive the classical tradition of the High Renaissance. Carracci was a key figure in establishing the Accademia degli Incamminati in Bologna, an art school that significantly renewed Italian art.34

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Annibale Carracci
…his finest religious paintings, notably Domine, Quo Vadis? (1601–02) and the Pietà (c. 1607). These works feature weighty, powerful figures in dramatically simple compositions. The lunette-shaped landscapes that Annibale painted for the Palazzo Aldobrandini, especially the Flight into Egypt and the Entombment (both c. 1604), proved important in the subsequent…
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…his finest religious paintings, notably Domine, Quo Vadis? (1601–02) and the Pietà (c. 1607). These works feature weighty, powerful figures in dramatically simple compositions. The lunette-shaped landscapes that Annibale painted for the Palazzo Aldobrandini, especially the Flight into Egypt and the Entombment (both c. 1604), proved important in the subsequent…
Read More