Museo Vaticano - Flickr - dorfun (6)

On the left, a group of Apostles gesticulates in confusion and helplessness as they realize they cannot perform a miracle. To the right, a father holds his convulsing son, whose eyes roll back in the throes of demonic possession. A kneeling woman in pink and blue drapery serves as a visual bridge, pointing toward the child to draw the viewer's attention to the earthly suffering that awaits divine intervention.

This work is a primary example of the High Renaissance synthesis of theology and Neoplatonism, juxtaposing the chaotic, shadowed material world of man with the radiant, divine light of the Transfiguration above. It illustrates the human soul's dependency on the 'lumen divinum' (divine light) to overcome the darkness of the physical and demonic realms.