Ezekiel’s Vision by Raphael was created in 1517 – 1518. The painting is in Palazzo Pitti Florence. The size of the work is 41 x 30 cm and is made of oil on panel.
This small panel is identified as the one described by Vasari in his “Lives” as “containing a Christ after the manner of Jupiter in Heaven, surrounded by the four Evangelists as Ezekiel describes them”. In fact the scene is taken from an episode in the Book of Ezekiel. In the centre is the Holy Father, arms lifted in blessing, held up by two angels, an eagle, an ox and a lion, the symbols of the evangelists, John, Luke, and Mark, while Matthew is depicted as the angel enrobed in a pale blue-purplish chlamys. A corolla of angelic heads fills the red hot opening in the sky, and are painted in monochrome or simply engraved in the primer, creating a vibrant sense of movement. Read more in Palazzo Pitti (Uffizi).
About the Artist: Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region. Most modern historians agree that Raphael at least worked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500. Raphael led a “nomadic” life, working in various centres in Northern Italy, but spent a good deal of time in Florence, perhaps from about 1504. Although there is traditional reference to a “Florentine period” of about 1504–1508, he was possibly never a continuous resident there… read more
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