The Transfiguration
Camillo Procaccini
c. 1590
Medium
Etching in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
56.5 × 35.5 cm (22 1/4 × 14 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
131392
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The Gospel of Matthew in the Christian Bible relates how three disciples accompanied Jesus to a remote hill where they saw him flanked by the prophets Moses and Elijah, and his body transfigured by a heavenly light: “his face did shine as the sun,” in Matthew’s words. Here, Camillo Procaccini visualized the supernatural event by depicting Jesus as a cloud of small dots unbound by any outline. The features of his face are barely visible, since during the etching of the plate they were exposed to ...