Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileTransfiguration
German: Transfiguration und Heilung des besessenen Knaben Transfigurationtitle QS:P1476,de:"Transfiguration und Heilung des besessenen Knaben "label QS:Lde,"Transfiguration und Heilung des besessenen Knaben "label QS:Lit,"Trasfigurazione"label QS:Lfr,"La Transfiguration"label QS:Lhr,"Isusovo preobraženje"label QS:Ltr,"Başkalaşım"label QS:Lsk,"Premenenie Pána"label QS:Lar,"التجلي (لوحة)"label QS:Lca,"La transfiguració"label QS:Lpt,"Transfiguração"label QS:Len-gb,"The Transfiguration"label QS:Luk,"Преображення (Рафаель)"label QS:Lbg,"Преображение (Рафаело)"label QS:Llt,"Apreiškimas"label QS:Lsl,"Spremenjenje na gori (Rafael)"label QS:Lja,"キリストの変容"label QS:Len-ca,"The Transfiguration"label QS:Lzh,"基督變容"label QS:Lsv,"Kristi förklaring"label QS:Lpl,"Przemienienie Pańskie"label QS:Lhe,"ההשתנות"label QS:Lnl,"De transfiguratie"label QS:Les,"La transfiguración"label QS:Laz,"Transformasiya"label QS:Loc,"Transfiguracion"label QS:Len,"Transfiguration"label QS:Leo,"Transfiguriĝo"label QS:Lru,"Преображение"
About This Work
A dramatic crowd is divided into two distinct groups: the helpless apostles on the left and the family of a suffering child on the right. The boy is depicted in the throes of a seizure with rolled-back eyes and stiff limbs, while a kneeling woman in the center foreground gestures toward him. The scene is characterized by sharp contrasts of light and shadow, emphasizing the chaos of the material world in the absence of divine intervention.
This composition reflects the Neoplatonic dichotomy between the terrestrial realm of matter and suffering and the celestial realm of divine light. In the context of Renaissance natural philosophy, the boy's condition was often viewed as a spiritual and physical discordance that could only be harmonized through the descent of divine grace or the 'ascent' of the soul.