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RAFFAELLO Sanzio: The Transfiguration

🖼 The Transfiguration, 1518-20
Oil on wood
405 × 278 cm
Vatican, Italy

Raphael's monumental altarpiece represents the pinnacle of High Renaissance achievement, seamlessly uniting two biblical narratives—Christ's divine transfiguration above and the disciples' struggle to heal a possessed boy below—into a single, spiritually cohesive vision. The painting's dynamic composition, with its interplay of heavenly light and earthly struggle, demonstrates Raphael's mastery of perspective, anatomy, and emotional expression, influencing religious art for centuries to come. Completed shortly before the artist's death in 1520, this work remains one of the Vatican's most revered treasures and a testament to Renaissance ideals of harmony, proportion, and divine revelation.

The story of art
The story of art
E. H. Gombrich
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