The Transfiguration

Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio, 1483-1520)

1516-1520

"Tempera grassa" on wood transferred to canvas

410 x 279 cm

Courtesy of the Vatican Museum Cat. 40333

Rome

The Vatican site explains that the “the altarpiece illustrates two episodes narrated in succession in the Gospel according to Matthew: the Transfiguration above, with Christ in glory between the prophets Moses and Elijah, and below, in the foreground, the meeting of the Apostles with the obsessed youth who will be miraculously cured by Christ on his return from Mount Tabor.

This is Raphael's last painting and appears as the spiritual testament of the artist. The work is considered in his biography, written by the famous artist and biographer of the 16th century, Giorgio Vasari, "the most famous, the most beautiful and most divine".