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Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0 · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileThe scene unfolds within a deep, golden-vaulted temple where a heavenly horseman and two young men strike down Heliodorus on the right. In the center background, the High Priest Onias kneels in prayer before a smoking altar and a seven-branched menorah. On the far left, Pope Julius II is depicted as a contemporary observer, carried into the biblical narrative on a ceremonial litter.
Commissioned for the Vatican, the work serves as a political and theological allegory for the protection of the Church's sovereignty and the divine punishment of those who violate sacred space. It reflects the Renaissance interest in the 'Temple of Solomon' as a site of divine wisdom and the synthesis of contemporary papal authority with biblical history.
ANN · D · M · D · XIII
Translation
IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1513
2 Maccabees
The primary scriptural source (specifically chapter 3) for the narrative of Heliodorus being punished for his sacrilege.
Egidio da Viterbo
A key intellectual in the court of Julius II whose Christian Kabbalistic and Neoplatonic views on the Temple of Jerusalem influenced the iconographic program of the Vatican Stanze.
Object
Oil on panel
religious
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
Raphael, Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple, 1511-12; Vatican Museums
5344 × 3446 px
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 1, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.