Raphael’s Unfinished Masterpiece: The Transfiguration.
The Transfiguration Commissioned in 1517 by Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici as an altarpiece for the French Cathedral of Narbonne. This work of religious art was left unfinished by Raphael when he passed away in 1520 and was completed by his assistants Giulio Romano and Giovanni Francesco Penni. This painting illustrates both the human and divine nature of Christ. The composition of The Transfiguration is divided into two distinct parts which illustrate two episodes narrated in succession in the Gospel according to Matthew: The Miracle of the Possessed Boy on a lower level 9: 19); and the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor, in the background. The transfigured Christ floats in an aura of light and clouds above the hill, accompanied by Moses and Elijah. Below, and on the ground, are his disciples (9: 2–13).
According to the Bible, In the upper Transfiguration, Jesus who is illuminated floats in the clouds above the hill vibrantly dressed in white, we also see Moses and Elijah floating alongside Jesus as if they were angelic guardians. We see below them are Jesus’s apostles who have fallen on the ground overcome with emotion after this incredible site. We can appreciate the gestures of the crowd in the lower section who are witnessing this miracle of the figure of Jesus floating in the skies. We see how their expressions indicate the disbelief and acclaim both halves felt and thus unite the two halves of the work. But we see some contrast in this painting on the top portion we see the brilliance of the Transfiguration, and on the lower portion of the painting is clearly evident that it’s engulfed by darkness, as well as the distress of the apostles who are unable to cure the sick boy. Jesus heals the boy in order to demonstrate the power of faith and prayer. We can see how Raphael used the contrast of light and movement between the two scenes, Raphael combines both these biblical events into one single masterpiece, eye-catching and striking painting.
Taking each of their respective points of view of imitation theories of the arts: Plato, Aristotle, Vasari, and Reynolds. Aristotle, we know that Plato had strong reservations about the arts in general. For Plato Art was an imitation and he found a few problems with imitation and felt that imitation was three times removed from the reality or the truth of whatever the artist was creating, he felt that Poets and other artists represented the gods in inappropriate ways so, for this reason, I don’t think he would have a different perspective of Raphael’s The Transfiguration especially since he was creating a depiction of Jesus. Plato felt that morally and Psychologically a good imitation would undermine the stability of even the best humans by making us feel sad, depressed, and sorrowful about life itself. Individuals who simply aspire for great wealth, fame, and power for its own sake were misguided which is what he felt artists were doing so this would more than likely be his perspective of Raphael. For Plato, a life well lived was achieved by the pursuit of higher knowledge, and man’s social obligation to the common good. In my opinion, Plato would probably feel uneasy about Rafael since he is a painter/artist and his work of the Transfiguration depicts somewhat of a scene of grief and sorrow of which Plato thinks is opportunistic and takes advantage of people feeling those unfavorable emotions he wanted everyone to steer clear from. He expressed how poetry or other artistic expressions other than hymns celebrates and thrives off such human moods for the sake of popularity and recognition as a poet/artist. He states that a poet’s audience is seduced into feeling negative emotions like sadness or sorrow so distress of the apostles who are unable to cure the sick boy could probably aid in Plato’s point of view to create these negative emotions. As a philosopher, he disapproves of this because he states it is based on falsehood. He is of the view that philosophy is better than poetry or other forms of arts because philosopher deals with idea/truth, whereas poets or artists deal with what appears to him as an illusion and to him, this would be unfavorable.
In Aristotle’s perspective Art was an imitation, but he didn’t think of imitation as his teacher Plato but rather felt it was acceptable to imitate and even good. In his point of view, Imitation is natural to humans from childhood. Imitation is how children learn, and we all learn from imitations. Aristotle claims that the sources of poetry are deeply embedded in our nature and are the instinct for imitation and the instinct for rhythm and harmony. The first, he suggests, is the more influential, because it’s so closely related to our vital desire to learn. We are taught as children that it is through imitation that much of our knowledge and skill is gained. In poetry or any other artistry, we are imitating the action, therefore, arousing the action of pity and fear, this way the human image is displayed as such and ends in wonder and beautifully gives a true and powerful account of the tragic pleasure. Aristotle wrote that the purpose of tragedy is to evoke a wonder born of pity and fear, the result of which is reliving those moments. As audience members we should sympathize with the protagonist, possibly recognizing in him/her our own human weaknesses. The Transfiguration would have been a perfect example of imitation for Aristotle because it offered what he called Katharsis which meant purification through pity and fear. As we see the fear all around with the distress of the apostles who are unable to cure the sick boy but also the faith we feel while seeing Jesus floating above with Moses and Elijah on each side of him in an aura of light and clouds above the hill. The Faith Jesus depicts in this painting saving the boy below who had fallen ill, would have shown the light which is faith within the darkness of the world. The painting imitated a beautiful gospel of the bible and brought it to life in such a spectacular way.
In Sir Joshua Reynolds's thirds discourse, he opens his third lectures by saying that the leading and aspiring painter must master the principles of his or her art by learning to draw, compose, and color his work. After the student has mastered these concepts, the student is then persuaded to completely study the ‘work of the individuals who have stood the trial of ages,’ in other words artists of the past. And should most importantly study specifically the Old Masters of a bygone era and the types of nature. With this being said Raphael has been regarded as one of the masters. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael’s work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. And even though he passed away in the 16th century it was in the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael’s more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. So, to me, It would be no surprise that Sir Joshua would probably feel much admiration and think very highly of Raphael and The Transfiguration having put all the ‘force of his art’ into the perfect figure of Christ, unfortunately, Raphael was overcome by death and his creativity was lost, Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop he left behind a large body of work. But nonetheless, he had all the elements needed to be thought of as the Master he was by Sir Joshua clarifies that the last investigation of nature shouldn’t be an end since it would risk producing art which is unimaginative and mechanical. Reynolds explains that his teachings of nature can be misunderstood and subject to inaccuracy, so we see that in this way he educates his students on a way to figure out how to enhance nature itself.
Giorgio Vasari was very invested in the ideals of tonal harmony within portraits he created and the portraits the artists he wrote about creating. He was very much into the techniques of Mannerism especially in the category of religious painting. Vasari was very focused on the details, the compositions of works he critiqued relied more on creative skills or the intelligence the artists professed in their creations. He enjoyed the distinctive characteristics of each artist he wrote about such things as unnatural colors, elongations of scale, exaggerations in contrast with the intent of creating a sense of high elegance, and heightened drama within the paintings or portraits narrative. Knowing Vasari’s most ideal qualities in painters of his time and having known Raphael and most likely written about the Transfiguration he probably admired the portrait created by the great Raphael and would have probably thought that it was the most beautiful and most divine work he created. In Giorgio Vasari’s The Lives, Vasari writes about the Transfiguration and how it was placed not for its intended setting in a church but at the head of Raphael’s body lying in state in his own studio. It displayed next to Raphael’s corpse seemed to make a not-so-subtle connection between the artist and Christ, in keeping with the idea that Raphael had died after he had come so close to being divine himself. The epitaph written for Raphael’s tomb claimed that Nature had taken Raphael from the earth out of envy after the artist had shown himself to compete with, or even conquer, Nature itself (Openlearn.edu).
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfiguration_of_Jesus
http://www.drbo.org/chapter/47017.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael
