The Transfiguration

Camillo Procaccini was the older brother of Giulio Cesare Procaccini, who worked in a sinuously Mannerist style, as seen in the Virgin and Child with Angels (1969.626). Yet Camillo used a sparer formal vocabulary in this depiction of a pivotal moment from Christ’s adulthood. Created at a similar scale as his brother’s painting, Camillo’s print was the largest etching produced in Italy to that date. The artist’s use of dotted lines allows Christ’s face to appear to dissolve as he unites with God the Father, casting a visionary blaze that temporarily blinds his apostles below.