Raphael's Transfiguration of Christ
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Raphael's Transfiguration of Christ
1518-20. Oil on wood, 405 x 278 cm
Pinacoteca, Vatican
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Click here
to see a
hand painted oil reproduction
of this famous art work.
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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.
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The Transfiguration of Christ,
detail of Christ
Raphael Sanzio
1518-20. Oil on wood, 405 x 278 cm
Pinacoteca, Vatican
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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
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