Raphael
By the end of 1508, Raphael had moved to Rome, where he lived for the rest of his life. He was invited by the new Pope Julius II, perhaps at the suggestion of his architect Donato Bramante, then engaged on St. Peter's Basilica, who came from just outside Urbino and was distantly related to Raphael. Unlike Michelangelo, who had been kept lingering in Rome for several months after his first summons, Raphael was immediately commissioned by Julius to fresco what was intended to become the Pope's private library at the Vatican Palace. This was a much larger and more important commission than any he had received before; he had only painted one altarpiece in Florence itself. Several other artists and their teams of assistants were already at work on different rooms, many painting over recently completed paintings commissioned by Julius's loathed predecessor, Alexander VI, whose contributions, and arms, Julius was determined to efface from the palace. Michelangelo, meanwhile, had been commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Transfiguration (Raphael)
The first descriptions of the painting after Raphael’s death in 1520 called the Transfiguration already a masterpiece, but this status evolved until the end of the 16th century. In his notes of a travel to Rome in 1577, the Spanish humanist Pablo de Céspedes called it the most famous oil-painting in the world for the first time. The painting would preserve this authority for more than 300 years. It was acknowledged and repeated by many authors, like the connoisseur François Raguenet, who analysed Raphael’s composition in 1701. In his opinion, its outline drawing, the effect of light, the colours and the arrangement of the figures made the Transfiguration the most perfect painting in the world.
Jonathan Richardson sen. and jun. dared to criticise the overwhelming status of the Transfiguration, asking if this painting could really be the most famous painting in the world: “Celui-cis est assurément le principal Tableau simple qu’il y ait à-present au Monde, & qui peut-être ait jamais été?” They criticised that the composition was divided into an upper and a lower half that would not correspond to each other. Also the lower half would draw to much attention instead of the upper half, while the full attention of the viewer should be paid to the figure of Christ alone.
This criticism did not diminish the fame of the painting, but provoked counter criticism by other connoisseurs and scholars. For the German speaking world, it was the assessment by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that prevailed. He interpreted the upper and the lower half as complementary parts. This assessment was quoted by many authors and scholars during the 19th century and thus the authority of Goethe helped to save the fame of the Transfiguration.