The Transfiguration of Christ

The original of this composition is the last picture Raphael worked on. Cardinal Giulio de' Medici ordered it in 1516 for his cathedral at Narbonne in the south of France, but when Raphael died in April 1520 the panel was set up beside his body as he lay in state in Rome, and it never went to France. It now hangs in the Vatican, about four metres tall. This canvas repeats it at little more than a third of that height. It keeps both halves of the story, Christ rising in light on the mountain between Moses and Elijah above, and below, the other apostles failing to cure a boy possessed by a demon. Who made the copy, and when, is not recorded. It came to the Museum of Fine Arts in 1890 with the bequest of Mrs. Henry Edwards.