page_title: Transfiguration of Jesus in Christian art
section_title: Iconography
hierarchical_section_title: Transfiguration of Jesus in Christian art / Iconography
context_page_description: The Transfiguration of Jesus has been an important subject in Christian art, above all in the Eastern church, some of whose most striking icons show the scene.
  The Feast of the Transfiguration has been celebrated in the Eastern church since at least the 6th century and it is one of the Twelve Great Feasts of Eastern Orthodoxy, and so is widely depicted, for example on most Russian Orthodox iconostases. In the Western church the feast is less important, and was not celebrated universally, or on a consistent date, until 1475, supposedly influenced by the arrival in Rome on August 6, 1456 of the important news of the breaking of the Ottoman Siege of Belgrade, which helped it to be promoted to a universal feast, but of the second grade.
  The subject typically does not appear in Western cycles of the Life of Christ, except for the fullest, such as Duccio's Maestà, and the Western iconography can be said to have had difficulty finding a satisfactory composition that does not merely follow the supremely dramatic and confident Eastern composition, which in Orthodox fashion has remained little changed over the centuries.
context_section_description: The earliest known version of the standard depiction is in an apse mosaic at Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt, dating to the period of (and probably commissioned by) Justinian the Great, where the subject had a special association with the site, because of the meeting of Christ and  Moses, "the 'cult hero' of Mount Sinai".  This very rare survivor of Byzantine art from before the Byzantine iconoclasm shows a standing Christ in a mandorla with a cruciform halo, flanked by standing figures of Moses on the left with a long beard, and Elijah on the right.  Below them are the three disciples named as present in the Synoptic Gospels: Saints Peter, James, son of Zebedee and John the Evangelist.
  The Gospel accounts (Matthew 17:1–9, Mark 9:2–8, Luke 9:28–36) describe the disciples as "sore afraid", but also as initially "heavy with sleep", and waking to see Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah and emitting a bright light.  The disciples are usually shown in a mixture of prostrate, kneeling, or reeling poses which are dramatic and ambitious by medieval standards and give the scene much of its impact.  Sometimes all appear awake, which is normal in the East, but in western depictions sometimes some or even all appear asleep; when faces are hidden, as they often are, it is not always possible to tell which is intended. Methods of depicting the bright light emitted by Jesus vary, including mandorlas, emanating rays, and giving him a gilded face, as in the Ingeborg Psalter.  In the East the voice of God may also be represented by light streaming from above onto Christ, while in the West, as in other scenes where the voice is heard, the Hand of God more often represents it in early scenes.
  The Sinai image is recognizably the same scene as found on modern Orthodox icons, with some differences: only Christ has a halo, which is still typical at this date, and the plain gold background removes the question of depicting the mountain setting which was to cause later Western artists difficulties.  The shape of the apse space puts the prophets and disciples on the same ground-line, though they are easily distinguished by their different postures.  But there are other early images which are less recognisable, and whose identity is disputed; this is especially the case where the disciples are omitted in small depictions; the 4th century Brescia Casket in ivory and a scene on the 5th century wooden doors of Santa Sabina in Rome may show the Transfiguration with just three figures, but, like many early small depictions of miracles of Christ, it is difficult to tell what the subject is.
  A different, symbolic, approach is taken in the apse mosaic of the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna, also mid 6th century, where half-length figures of Moses (beardless) and Elijah emerge from little clouds on either side of a large jewelled cross with a Hand of God above it. This scene occupies the "sky" over a standing figure of Saint Apollinaris (said to have been a disciple of Saint Peter) in a paradisal garden, who is flanked by a frieze-like procession of twelve lambs, representing the Twelve Apostles.  Three further lambs stand higher up, near the horizon of the garden, and looking up at the jewelled cross; these represent the three apostles who witnessed the Transfiguration.
  In more vertical depictions of the standard type the scene resolved itself into two zones of three figures: above Christ and the prophets, and below the disciples.  The higher was stately, static and calm, while in the lower zone the disciples sprawl and writhe, in sleep or in terror. In Eastern depictions each prophet usually stands as secure as a mountain goat on his own little jagged peak; Christ may occupy another, or more often float in empty air between them.  Sometimes all three float, or stand on a band of cloud. Western depictions show a similar range, but by the late Middle Ages, as Western artists sought more realism in their backgrounds, the mountain setting became a problem for them, sometimes leading to the upper zone being placed on a litt
caption: Apse mosaic of the Transfiguration from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, 565–66, the earliest version of the Eastern iconography that has remained to the present day.
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