| |
|
The
Transfiguration was the artist’s Last major work. Commissioned
by Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, the future Pope Clement VII,
for the cathedral in Narbonne, France, it was not quite finished
at the time of his death. The huge altarpiece finally made it to
France in 1797, but as Napoleonic loot. It was returned to the Vatican
in 1815. A cleaning 450 years after it was painted revealed the
brilliant colors and extraordinary lighting Raphael used to dramatize
the scene of a boy supposedly possessed by the devil. Theatrical
gestures and experimental lighting in the upper and lower halves
of the painting emphasized the contrast between man’s earthly
troubles and the peacefulness of the spiritual realm.
|
|
