"The Transfiguration" (R. Sanzio, 1518-1520)
Modern criticism has confirmed the story of Vasari, who, pointing to the Transfiguration as Raffaello's last work he wrote: "In his hand, continuously working, he reduced (it) to ultimate perfection."
The work was commissioned to Raffaello in 1517 for the cathedral of Narbonne, by the cardinal Giulio de 'Medici. Some critics have speculated that the lower part of the painting had been made by the master students after his death, in the years 1520-25. It 'still entirely due to Raffaello the original presentation of the Transfiguration in the same table at the top and bottom of the obsessed scene; the two episodes appear one after the other in the Gospels.
The originality lies precisely in the tension that is created by the simultaneous presence of the two sides, the top and bottom, the Christ light and the gray area in which the obsessed with the other nine apostles that didn't go up to Mount Tabor.
A preparatory drawing, maybe not by Raffaello but certainly at least a copy of his sketch, probably reproduces the original idea, most traditional, with the three apostles of the Transfiguration occupying the lower part of the painting and the absence of the obsessed scene. In the final version of the episode here was the obsessed show up at the bottom, while the three apostles who witness the Transfiguration are higher up, in the middle reserved for Christ appearing in his light.