The Transfiguration

Attribution:

klong35

Key Dates

1520

The painting was begun in 1516 and completed in 1520. It was commissioned in 1515, by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (the future pope Clement VII), as one of two paintings for the cathedral of S. Giusto of Narbonne, the city of which he had become bishop in. After Raphael's death in 1520, the cardinal kept it for himself, subsequently donating it to the church of S. Pietro in Montorio where it was placed over the high altar. In 1797, following the Treaty of Tolentino, this work, like many others, was taken to Paris and returned in 1816, after the fall of Napoleon. It then became part of the Pinacoteca of Pius VII (pontiff from 1800 to 1823).

Key People

Raphael was an Italian renaissance artist celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. This was his final work.

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.
As Raphael's last painting, it 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, as "the most famous, the most beautiful and most divine".

Origin & Collection

On display at:

Vatican Museums

Additional information on display location:

Pinacoteca, Room VIII

Reference Number:

40333

Physical properties

Width:

279.00cm

Height:

410.00cm