Vision Ezechiel Monchablon

The painting depicts the Almighty with outstretched arms, supported by a swirling arrangement of two small angels and the four winged creatures representing the Evangelists: the man, the lion, the ox, and the eagle. In the lower left of the landscape, the tiny figure of Ezekiel is illuminated by a ray of light as he witnesses the celestial apparition. This work is an 1868 copy of the original High Renaissance masterpiece by Raphael.

Ezekiel’s vision of the Divine Chariot (Merkabah) is the foundational text for Merkabah mysticism, the earliest form of Jewish esoteric tradition which deeply influenced later Kabbalah. In the Renaissance, such imagery was also interpreted through a Neoplatonic lens as a representation of the soul's ascent and the hierarchical structure of the celestial spheres.