Transfiguration (raffael)
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| Transfiguration |
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| Raphael , 1516/20 |
| Oil tempera on cherry wood |
| 405 × 278 cm |
| Vatican Museums , Inv. No. 333 |
The Transfiguration is the last painting by Raphael that he worked on until his death in 1520. In the picture, two scenes from the New Testament , the transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor and the healing of the moonstruck boy, are related in a unique way .
From the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 20th century, it was considered the most famous painting in the world.
history
The picture was ordered by Giulio de 'Medici , a cousin of Pope Leo X and Vice Chancellor of the Pope.
In December 1516, the latest possible date for the order of the picture, Giulio was bishop in Albi , Ascoli , Worcester and Eger and since February 1515 Archbishop of Narbonne . Giulio commissioned two paintings for the Saint-Juste Cathedral in Narbonne, a "Resurrection of Lazarus" from Sebastiano del Piombo and the "Transfiguration" from Raffael.
In 1518 Sebastiano's painting was as good as finished and could be viewed while Raphael had barely started. When he died on April 6, 1520, the picture was complete except for a few small parts. As Vasari reports, Raphael was laid out in his house in the Borgo under this picture before he was buried in the Pantheon . A week after Raphael's death, the two pictures were exhibited in the Vatican. Giulio only sent a copy to Narbonne and kept the picture for himself, which was initially brought to the Palazzo della Cancelleria . In 1523 Giulio was elected Pope Clement VII . In the same year he had the transfiguration set up in San Pietro in Montorio , where it was admired by many travelers to Rome who report about it in their diaries or letters.
In 1797 , when Napoleon had also seized the Papal States in the course of his Italian campaign , the picture was carried off to Paris with many other works of art. On July 2, 1798, the 4th anniversary of the fall of Robespierre , the works of art, including the Apollo of Belvedere , the Laocoon and the so-called “Capitoline Brutus” , arrived in Paris and were enthusiastically welcomed. On February 19, 1799, Napoleon concluded with Pius VI. the Treaty of Tolentino , in which the confiscation of 100 works of art from the Vatican's collection was sealed.
In July 1801, the picture was shown as part of an exhibition in the Great Gallery of the Louvre, together with more than 20 works by Raphael. In 1810 Napoleon and Marie Louise visited the gallery during their wedding celebrations. The procession of the couple and their guests with the transfiguration in the center of the picture is documented in a drawing by Benjamin Zix .
Only in 1815, in the course of the reorganization of Europe at the Congress of Vienna , were works confiscated by Napoleon, including the Transfiguration, returned to the Vatican. Today the picture is kept in the Pinacoteca Vaticana .
Doubts about Raphael's authorship, which had repeatedly been expressed in research, were allayed during the extensive restoration of the picture from 1972 to 1979. Except for a few places in the lower part, the picture is painted by one hand.
iconography
The text source for the picture are two events from the New Testament, which are told by the evangelists Mark , Matthew and Luke : the transfiguration of Christ ( Mt 17 : 1-9 EU ; Mk 9.2-10 EU , Lk 9.28-36 EU ) and the healing of a possessed (moonstruck) boy ( Mt 17.14–21 EU ; Mk 9.14–20 EU ; Lk 9.37–43 EU ).
In the upper part of the picture the transfiguration itself is shown, which according to tradition took place on Mount Tabor - not named in the Bible. Christ, in a “bright white” robe, floats in an almond-shaped halo of light and clouds, beside him and also floating the prophet Elijah and Moses with the tablets of the law in their arms. The three apostles Peter , John and James have thrown themselves on the ground and cover their eyes against the shining light. The two kneeling viewer on the left outer edge of the image are likely Justus and Pastor , the church patrons of the Cathedral Saint Juste , for the altarpiece was determined and their feast day in the calendar of saints of the Catholic Church on August 6, the "Day of the Transfiguration of the Lord" falls .
On the left side of the lower zone of the picture is a group of nine apostles who stare excitedly at the boy who is obviously having a seizure. The apostle crouching on the bank of a pond in the foreground in the iconographic colors of Simon Petrus holds an open codex in his right hand and looks fascinated at the scene, while the other hand makes a defensive movement that creates a distance. On the right side, a tightly packed group of seven people, including the parents, surrounds the boy. The female figure from the back acts as a connection between the two groups, turning her gaze over her left shoulder to the apostles, while she points with her left index finger in the opposite direction at the boy.
Interpretations
As is the case with many pictures that were created in Renaissance Italy, Raphael's Transfiguration has been interpreted in different ways since the beginning, and to this day eludes a comprehensive, universally recognized interpretation. The upper half of the picture with its bright and pure colors, the symmetry and harmony of the picture composition and the lower dark half of the picture, with its crowded abundance of people, emotions and confusion and the lines of composition crossing in many directions, can be seen as a field of tension between the the healing power of the Savior and the chaos of the earthly world. While the apostles failed to heal the boy (Lk 9:40), the power of Jesus, to whom the apostle dressed in striking red points, is needed to heal the boy (Lk 9,41-42).
Art historical classification
Raphael's picture embodies the transition of painting from the formal principles of the Renaissance to Mannerism and the Baroque . Examples of the beginning Mannerism are the female back figure , which with the position of the arms represents a figura serpentinata , and the figure of the moonstruck boy, almost a mirror image. On the other hand , the moving and excited action of the figures, the chiaroscuro , the dramatic light effects and chiaroscuro contrasts of emotional effectiveness in the lower half of the picture point to the coming Baroque.
reception
The reception of the painting can be proven extremely well. Between 1525 and 1935, at least 229 written sources can be identified that describe, analyze, criticize or praise the painting. In addition, there is a large number of reproductions: between 1523 and 1913, at least 68 copies, 52 graphic reproductions and 32 graphics were made that reproduce details and partially convert them into new compositions. There are also image quotations in paintings and frescoes.
The first descriptions after Raphael's death call the painting admirable, but this fame increased until the end of the 16th century. The Spanish humanist Pablo de Céspedes made notes on a trip to Rome in 1577 and described the panel for the first time as the most famous oil painting in the world. The painting was able to maintain this status for more than 300 years. The art connoisseur François Raguenet described it as the most perfect painting in the world due to the outline drawing , the lighting effects, the colors and the arrangement of the figures.
Criticism came from Jonathan Richardson Sr. and junior, who dared to question the status of world fame: "Celui-cis est assurément le principal Tableau simple qu'il y ait à-present au Monde, & qui peut-être ait jamais été?" In her opinion, the composition falls into two halves, and the lower half distracts from Christ as the most important subject in the picture. Instead of diminishing the fame of the painting, however, they provoked counter-criticism. The most famous came from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , who, on the contrary, viewed both halves of the picture as complementary to each other. Goethe's judgment was quoted many times in the 19th century and his authority as an author supported the status of the painting.
During the brief stay in Paris, the painting became one of the main attractions of the Musée Napoleon . It also attracted visitors to Rome, including Mark Twain in 1869: “I shall remember the Transfiguration partly because it was placed in a room almost by itself; partly because it is acknowledged by all to be the first oil painting in the world; and partly because it was wonderfully beautiful. "
In the early 20th century, however, the Transfiguration lost its pre-eminent status and the title of the most famous painting in the world. A new generation of artists rejected Raffael as an artistic role model. Copies and reproductions were hardly in demand anymore. While the complexity of the composition and the arrangement of figures were still praised in the 19th century, this has now turned into the opposite. The painting was perceived as overloaded, too theatrical and too artificial. Other paintings, such as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, were able to serve changed reception needs much better, such as being able to be grasped quickly. The transfiguration is thus a good example to demonstrate the changeability of the fame of a work of art, which can be confirmed for centuries and can also disappear in a short time if the framework conditions change.
literature
- Jürg Meyer zur Capellen : Raphael. A Critical Catalog of his Paintings. Vol. 2: The Roman Religious Paintings approx. 1508–1520. 2005, ISBN 3-935339-21-6 .
- Andreas Henning: Raphael's Transfiguration and the Contest for Color. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-422-06525-3 .
- Rudolf Preimersberger: Tragic Motifs in Raffel's Transfiguration. In: Journal for Art History. 50, 1987, pp. 88-115.
- Dieter Janz: Epilepsy viewed metaphysically; an interpretation of the biblical story of the epileptic boy and of Raphael's Transfiguration. In: Epilepsia. Volume 27, 1986, pp. 316-322.
- Herbert von Eine : The "Transfiguration of Christ" and the "Healing of the possessed" by Raffael (= treatises of the humanities and social science class of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. Born in 1966, No. 5).
- Jodi Cranston: Transfiguration of revelation in Raphael's transfiguration. In: Renaissance Quaterly. March 22, 2003. Full-Text Online Library. (Full text)
- Gregor Bernhart-Königstein: Raphael's Transfiguration: The most famous painting in the world. Imhof, Petersberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-86568-085-3 .
- Damian Dombrowski: Raphael's Transfiguration - The First Image of Catholic Reform? In: Andreas Tacke (ed.): Art and confession. Catholic commissioned works in the age of religious schism 1517–1563. Regensburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-7954-2133-5 , pp. 320–347.
- Sebastian Dohe: Raphael model - Raphael’s model. The work of art as a visual authority . Petersberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86568-860-6 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Figure
- ↑ Figure
- ^ Martin Rosenberg: Raphael's Transfiguration and Napoleon's Cultural Politics. In: Eighteenth-Century Studies. Vol. 19. No. 2, 1985, pp. 180-205.
- ↑ Jürg Meyer zur Capellen: Raphael. A Critical Catalog of his Paintings. Vol. 2: The Roman Religious Paintings approx. 1508–1520. 2005, p. 198.
- ↑ Vera Schauber, Hanns Michael Schidler: Saints and namesake in the course of the year. Pattloch, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-629-00830-5 , p. 403.
- ↑ Sebastian Dohe: Raphael model - Raphael’s models. The work of art as a visual authority . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86568-860-6 , p. 288-315 .
- ↑ S. Dohe: Mission Raffael - Raphael models. 2014, p. 49.
- ↑ François Raguenet: Les Monumens de Rome ou Descriptions of plus beaux ouvrages de peinture, sculpture de et d'Architecture . Amsterdam 1701, p. 161-172 .
- ↑ Jonathan Richardson: Traité de la Peinture et de la Sculpture . tape 3 . Amsterdam 1728, p. 612 .
- ↑ S. Dohe: Mission Raffael - Raphael models. 2014, p. 65.
- ^ Mark Twain: The innocents abroad or The new pilgrims' progress . Hartford 1869, p. 303 .
- ↑ S. Dohe: Mission Raffael - Raphael models. 2014, pp. 220-224.