Italian Renaissance
Artists: A - L
Italian Renaissance
Artists: M - Z
Italian Renaissance
Movements/Periods
Other News in Art Glossary of Terms
Contemporary
Abstract Art
Elegant Fireplace Screens Oil Painting
Reproductions
Sculpture Reproductions Fine Art Puzzles

 

Find out how and why you should buy your
oil painting reproductions from Fine Art Touch.

Raphael's Transfiguration of Christ

Raphael's Transfiguration of Christ

Raphael's Transfiguration of Christ
1518-20. Oil on wood, 405 x 278 cm
Pinacoteca, Vatican

  Click here to see a
hand painted oil reproduction
of this famous art work.

Raphael's Transfiguration of Christ was commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clement VII) as one of two paintings for the Cathedral of S. Giusto of Narbonne, the city becoming the Cardinal's bishopric in 1515. Sebastiano del Piombo got the other commission of the Raising of Lazarus. The Cardinal never sent the original of Raphael's Transfiguration of Christ to Narbonne, deciding to keep it for himself following the death of Raphael in 1520. He sent a copy to Narbonne. The Cardinal later sent Raphael's original Transfiguration of Christ to the Church of S. Pietro in Montorio for the high altar. In 1797, the painting was taken to Paris, but then returned to the papacy in Rome in 1816 after Napoleon's defeat.

Detail of Christ, Raphael's Transfiguration of Christ

The Transfiguration of Christ,
detail of Christ

Raphael Sanzio
1518-20. Oil on wood, 405 x 278 cm
Pinacoteca, Vatican

  Click here to see a
hand painted oil reproduction
of this famous art work.

Raphael's Transfiguration of Christ illustrates two scenes from the Gospel of Matthew: Above, the episode of the transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor occurs with Christ flanked by Moses and Elijah, and below, the obsessed youth who will later be cured by Christ as he returns from Mount Tabor being met by the Apostles who wait for their master.

Raphael's Transfiguration of Christ is one of the most significant works in Italian Renaissance Art. Raphael's biographer, Giorgio Vasari, writes "the most famous, the most beautiful and most divine" in describing Raphael's Transfiguration of Christ. This is Raphael's last painting.

Brenda Harness, Art Historian

Search Query We accept Paypal

Welcome !


 We respect your privacy and  will never sell your personal information.

Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

Buy great
art books
at Amazon!