Acts of Peter
The work depicts a scene featured in the apocryphal Acts of Peter. Saint Peter, while fleeing Rome along the ancient Via Appia, meets Christ outside the city, who is walking in the opposite direction towards the city, carrying his cross. Peter asks him, "Domine, quo vadis?" The question is in Latin and means "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus replies, "Eo Romam iterum crucifigi," which means: "I am going to Rome to be crucified again."