Raphael's Rooms
Room of Heliodorus
Vatican City
Rome Italy
2016


Raphael's Rooms
The four rooms known as the Stanze of Raphael formed part of the apartment situated on the second floor of the Pontifical Palace that was chosen by Julius II della Rovere (pontiff from 1503 to 1513) as his own residence and used also by his successors. The pictorial decoration was executed by Raphael and his school between 1508 and 1524.


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Room of Heliodorus
This room was originally used for the private audiences of the Pope and was decorated by Raphael immediately after the Segnatura. The room's programme is political and aims at documenting, in different historical moments from the Old Testament to medieval history, the miraculous protection bestowed by God on the Church. Faith had been threatened (Mass of Bolsena), in the person of its pontiff (Liberation of St Peter), in its site (Encounter of Leo the Great with Attila) and in its patrimony (Expulsion of Heliodorus from the temple). These were also chosen to express the political programme of Julius II (pontiff from 1503 to 1513), aimed at freeing Italy, at the time occupied by the French, to restore the temporal power under threat to the papacy. The four episodes of the Old Testament on the ceiling are the work of Raphael, while in the grotesques and in the arches there are still some parts that can be attributed to Luca Signorelli, Bramantino, Lorenzo Lotto and Cesare da Sesto. They date to the first decoration commissioned by Julius II at the beginning of his pontificate, that was interrupted and then replaced by the present one due to the pontiff's great admiration for the first frescoes of Raphael in the adjoining room of the Segnatura.


Encounter of Leo the Great with Attila
The encounter between Leo the Great and Attila is the last fresco painted in this room. It was completed after the death of Julius II (pontiff from 1503 to 1513), during the pontificate of his successor Leo X (pontiff from 1513 to 1521). In fact the latter appears twice in the same scene, portrayed in the guise of Pope Leo the Great and as cardinal. According to legend, the miraculous apparition of Saints Peter and Paul armed with swords during the meeting between Pope Leo the Great and Attila (452 A.D.) caused the king of the Huns to desist from invading Italy and marching on Rome. Raphael situates the scene at the gates of Rome, identified by the Colosseum, by an aqueduct, an obelisk and other buildings, even if in fact the historical event took place in the north of Italy, near Mantua.