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About This Work
This large-scale work, a copy after Raphael's Vatican fresco, depicts a chaotic scene within a grand architectural interior. On the right, a celestial rider on a white horse and two youths strike down Heliodorus, who lies on the ground with his loot. To the left, Pope Julius II is carried on a litter by attendants, observing the miraculous event alongside a group of women and children.
The work serves as a political and religious allegory for the protection of Church sanctity and property through divine intervention. Within the context of Raphael’s Vatican commissions, it reflects the High Renaissance synthesis of classical form and Christian narrative central to the Neoplatonic environment of the Papal court.