The scene of Christ's Charge to Peter combines text from two books of the bible, Matthew and John. According to Matthew, Christ gives Peter the keys to his kingdom of Heaven, which represents Peter's role of responsibility in the church and towards the faithful.

This print is in the same direction as Raphael's Cartoon of the subject. The so-called Raphael Cartoons are seven full size designs for tapestries by the great Italian Renaissance artist Raphael (1483-1520). They illustrate passages from the Bible concerning the lives of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. None of them is smaller than ten feet high by thirteen feet wide. They belong to Her Majesty the Queen and have been on loan to this museum since 1865. The earliest print relating to the Raphael Cartoons dates from 1516, the year in which Raphael received final payment for the commission. It inaugurates an extraordinary case study in the history of printmaking, stretching over more than four hundred and fifty years and across a wide range of printmaking techniques.

Diana Scultori was the daughter and sister of engravers Giovanni Battista and Adamo Scultori. Because she came from the Italian city of Mantua, where from 1559 the Gonzaga family owned a set of the tapestries, some experts have wondered if this print could have been based on a tapestry rather than a drawing. A drawing seems the more probable source. Like the print, a drawing by Raphael in the Louvre misses out the sheep and the boat which are in the tapestry. In the tapestry the sheep symbolise the human souls which Christ is entrusting to the care of his disciple Peter. The copper plate for this print passed through the hands of a succession of print publishers. Impressions were still being taken from it in 1773.