The Transfiguration | |
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Artist | Raphael |
Year | 1516–20[1] |
Medium | Oil tempera on wood[2] |
Dimensions | 410 cm × 279 cm (160 in × 110 in) |
Location | Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City |
Accession | 40333[1] |
Website | www |
The Transfiguration is the last painting by the Italian High Renaissance master Raphael. Cardinal Giulio de Medici – who later became Pope Clement VII (in office: 1523–1534) – commissioned the work, conceived as an altarpiece for Narbonne Cathedral in France; Raphael worked on it in the years preceding his death in 1520.[1] The painting exemplifies Raphael's development as an artist and the culmination of his career. Unusually for a depiction of the Transfiguration of Jesus in Christian art, the subject is combined with the next episode from the Gospels (the healing of a possessed boy) in the lower part of the painting. The work is now in the Pinacoteca Vaticana in the Vatican City.[1]
From the late 16th century until the early 20th century, various commentators regarded it as the most famous oil painting in the world.
Raphael, Transfiguration, 1516-1520. Oil tempera on wood