In 2018, German artist Michael Triegel asked a homeless man in Rome to pose for a drawing, thinking that he would make an ideal model for St. Peter if he ever needed to paint the first pope. Seven years on, the man's likeness has gone on display in the Vatican, a reunion of sorts that came about by improbable chance. The homeless German man Burkhard Scheffler died from the cold in 2022 on the edge of St. Peter’s Square. The saga began in Germany, where Triegel in 2019 won a commission from the Protestant Cathedral in the city of Naumburg to create a new central panel for its altar by Renaissance master Lucas Cranach the Elder. The panel would replace an original that was destroyed in 1541 during the Reformation. Cranach's two side panels survived. Triegel, a Catholic convert, leapt at the prospect of a "collaboration with Cranach." Triegel planned out his painting and drew on that encounter he had in 2018 with the homeless man in Rome. The man took his place as St. Peter among the saints gathered around Mary and the infant Jesus. Triegel said it was important that his subjects would be real people, not just historic. St. Paul was based on a rabbi Triegel met in Jerusalem, while Mary was modelled on the artist's daughter. In the back behind Mary was Protestant pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an opponent of the Nazis who was executed in 1945.
Triegel's St. Peter is bearded, wears a red baseball cap complete with his flowing beard and those alert eyes. The man, Burkhard Scheffler, had suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under Italy's harsh lockdowns, fewer and fewer people ventured out to provide handouts and food to those in need. Scheffler was arrested in May 2020 after he apparently threatened someone with a knife for refusing to give him change. He was sentenced to three years in prison and released in late 2022. Known to many in the Vatican, he had grown weak in prison. On the night of Nov. 25, 2022, Scheffler died from the cold. His death caught the attention of Pope Francis, who had made a priority of caring for the homeless people around the Vatican. Under Francis' watch, the Vatican installed showers, a barber shop and clinic in the colonnade of St. Peter's. Francis' almsgiver went out on cold nights to distribute sleeping bags. Hours after Scheffler died, the Vatican spokesperson issued a statement saying he had been cared for by the Vatican's charity office but unfortunately, the rain and cold weather contributed to aggravate his fragile condition. Pope Francis asked that Scheffler be buried at the Teutonic cemetery on the grounds of the Vatican, alongside many German-speaking priests, pilgrims and notables. His simple tomb is in the small pilgrim section, in the shadow of St Peter’s Basilica and just a few yards from the tomb of the real St. Peter. The altar with the painting is now on a two-year loan to the Vatican chapel, a stone's throw from Scheffler's grave, itself just steps from the tomb of St. Peter.
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