Rome: In a serene corner behind the walls of the Vatican, near the tomb of St Peter, a remarkable artistic and spiritual moment has unfolded. A large altarpiece by German painter Michael Triegel, originating from Naumburg in eastern Germany, has been installed in the Church of the Teutonic Cemetery (Campo Santo Teutonico), symbolizing a bridge between centuries of art, faith, and human stories.

The painting’s journey began with an encounter in 2018 when Triegel, a Catholic artist from Leipzig, met a homeless man named Scheffler outside a church in Rome’s Trastevere district. “By giving him alms, I thought I was easing my conscience. But in his eyes, I saw an entire life,” Triegel recalled. Inspired, he asked Scheffler to pose, painting him from below, a perspective traditionally reserve

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