Mark Nine

So I read to my kids from the Bible every night. Tonight's reading du jour was from Mark 9 - the Transfiguration story followed by the Healing of a Demon-Possessed Boy. Reading it made me think of this painting by Raphael.

Now, I personally am more of a fan of Michelangelo and Leonardo, on whose gigantic shoulders Raphael stands. But he was no slouch either, particularly when it came to composition- arranging the elements of his paintings into a cohesive whole. One thing artists always do is lead the viewer's eye around the whole picture. So the way things line up and where they point to are little devices to leave a trail for your eye to follow. One device Raphael liked to use was a figure eight. Here the top half of the eight is the Transfiguration scene, the bottom half is the crowd having a fit about the demon-possessed boy. Now it's easy to focus on Jesus- He takes center stage and is encircled by the billowing clouds that echo the 'lines' made by Moses, Elijah, and Peter, James, and John. Below, however, the scene is more chaotic, and the 'star' of the show, the demon-possessed boy, is off to the right. But here Raphael helps us out by splitting the crowd of people in two, the black expanse between the two groups is punctured by a pointing hand that leads our eyes directly to the boy's face. More subtly is the looping of the bottom half of the eight (which, perhaps not incidentally, is an infinity symbol). If you look at the disciple in blue and yellow in the center of the painting, follow his left foot, point to the right, across the black expanse to the upraised hand, down the arm of the demon-possessed boy, along the edge of the garment that crosses the kneeling woman's back which leads to the outstretched hand of the man in the lower left corner of the painting. Follow his arm up to the man behind him, up his arm and along the back and arm of the man in red, which follows a direct path along the disciple in yellow's (where we started) bent right leg, and on up around Moses, Jesus, and Elijah, and back down and around again.

These formal devices make for a nicely constructed painting. But perhaps my favorite connection is more conceptual in nature- it has to do less with holding the picture together than it does in conveying meaning. With all the activity going on it's helpful to look at the people's eyes- what are they focused on? It's telling that the little boy, the one who's having a rough time and needs, seemingly, the most help, is the only one whose eyes are focused on Jesus.