For more than 300 years - from approx. 1520 to 1850 - Raphael's "Transfiguration" [see episode "Epilepsy in the Bible (II) of this series] was deemed the "world's most famous painting" and this assessment continued to serve subsequent artists as a template for the depiction of the transfiguration topic, as it did for the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, when he was commissioned in 1605 to decorate the Jesuit Church in Mantua with a transformation image. When working on this painting, Rubens closely adhered to the almost one hundred year older Raphaelian template, which he much admired.
Today, Rubens’ colossal painting (407x670 cm, oil on canvas) can be viewed at the Musée des beaux-arts in Nancy. It bears the same title as its Italian predecessor: "La Transfiguration" ("The Transfiguration"). As is the case with Raphael's painting, the upper part of the image shows Christ's transfiguration, the appearance of the prophet Moses and Elijah and three accompanying apostles. The lower part depicts two groups of people opposite each other: the nine remaining apostles on the left and the parents with their "moonstruck" son and some companions on the right. As in Raphael's masterpiece, the Rubens painting also depicts the connection between the two groups by a beautiful female figure on her knees, Mary Magdalene - reproduced with erotic grace - pointing with her right hand to the ill boy in the arms of his parents.
We are obviously particularly interested in the display of this "moonstruck", epileptic boy, which does deviate from Raphael's version in several significant points. While his painting [see Epilepsy in the Bible (II)] depicts the boy in a rigid, "tonic" pose, Rubens’ displays moments of expressive dynamics: the body posture of the boy, held by both parents and yes, even restraining his storm of motion; the boy's twisted arms, displayed in hues of blue (whereby the left arm, seemingly blue-black at its distal part, is stretched diagonally back and upwards, while the right hand is cramped around one end of the already torn cloth); the head is tilted and twisted in an unnatural position to the neck and torso; the eyes are fixed in an extreme squint; the mouth is open (one can even imagine the scream not rarely emitted during a "grand mal" seizure!); the clear hypersalivation; and finally the legs - also hued in blue - in wild, opposing movement!
One might even think that both artists - Raphael and Rubens – had supported their displays of the epileptic boy on two different Gospel reports: Raphael, who basically depicts "his" boy in a "tonic seizure phase", which often leads to an abrupt fall, on the Gospel according to Matthew ("He often falls into fire or water"), and Rubens, who rather depicts the afflicted boy in the characteristics of the "clonic phase", on the Gospel according to Luke (" ... and suddenly he screams, he [the evil spirit - Author's note] drags him to and fro, so that he doth froth!").
An interesting aspect in the comparison of the two images is that the right lower corner of Rubens’ painting depicts two people sought in vain in Raphael's painting: a young, blonde woman with bared breasts and outstretched arm, her left hand keeping back an approaching youth, whose facial expression and gestures express painful mourning - one is almost reminded of a weeping putto. Is this to banish (through this artistic metaphor) the suffering caused by the severe chronic illness by elevating the hope for returning vitality, i.e. for a cure (which is actually granted in the Gospel reports!)?
