Vatican Museums-6 (147)

The scene unfolds in a grand, vaulted temple with a deep perspective leading to a kneeling high priest at the altar. To the right, a divine messenger on a white horse tramples Heliodorus while two celestial figures scour him; to the left, Pope Julius II is carried in a litter as a contemporary witness to the miracle.

Commissioned by Pope Julius II, the fresco serves as an allegory for the divine protection of the Church and its temporal assets. It reflects the Renaissance Neoplatonic fascination with the Temple of Jerusalem as a site of sacred geometry and the preservation of 'prisca theologia' within the heart of the Vatican.