Transfiguration (Raphael)

Infobox Painting|

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title=The Transfiguration
artist=Raphael
year=1516-1520
type=oil on wood
height=405
width=278
city=Vatican City
museum=Pinacoteca Vaticana

"The Transfiguration" is considered the last painting by the Italian High Renaissance master Raphael. It was left unfinished by Raphael, and is believed to have been completed by his pupil, Giulio Romano, shortly after Raphael's death in 1520. The picture is now housed in the Pinacoteca Vaticana of the Vatican Museum in the Vatican City.

Provenance

The work was commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de Medici in 1516 for the cathedral of San Giusto in Narbonne, France. The Italian artist Sebastiano del Piombo was contemporaneously commissioned to paint the Raising of Lazarus for the cathedral.

Following Raphael's premature death in 1520, the cardinal retained the picture rather than send it to France. He subsequently donated it to the church of San Pietro in Montorio, Rome. It was taken by French troops to fak fak))in 1797, but after 1815 it was brought to the Vatican, to its present location.

A mosaic copy of the painting was installed in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City in 1767.

Narrative

The composition is divided in two distinct parts, relating to successive episodes of the Gospel of Matthew. The upper part of the painting shows the Transfiguration itself on Mount Tabor, with the transfigured Christ floating in front of softly illuminated clouds, between the prophets Moses and Elijah with whom he is discoursing in the account of Matthew.

In the lower part, Raphael depicts the Apostles attempting, unsuccessfully, to free the possessed boy of his demonic possession. They are unable to cure the sick child until the arrival of the recently-transfigured Christ, who performs a miracle.

Analysis and interpretation

Raphael's "Transfiguration" can be considered a prefiguration of both Mannerism, as evidenced by the stylised, contorted poses of the figures at the bottom of the picture; and of Baroque painting, as evidenced by the dramatic tension imbued within those figures, and the strong use of chiaroscuro throughout.

On the simplest level, the painting can be interpreted as a depicting a dichotomy: the redemptive power of Christ, as symbolised by the purity and symmetry of the top half of the painting; contrasted with the flaws of Man, as symbolised by the dark, chaotic scenes in the bottom half of the painting.

The philosopher Nietzsche interpreted the painting in his book "The Birth of Tragedy" as an image of the conflict between Apollonian and Dionysian principles.

The sixteenth century painter and biographer, Giorgio Vasari, wrote in his Lives of the Artists that the "Transfiguration" was Raphael's "most beautiful and most divine" work.

References

* [http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/x-Schede/PINs/PINs_Sala08_05_035.html The Transfiguration at the Vatican Museum]