Room of Heliodorus

After completing the Room of the Segnatura, Raphael set about decorating the second room in Julius II's apartment, known as the Room of Heliodorus.

Unlike the previous room, which housed the Pope's private library, this was a reception room reserved for audiences. Ambassadors, princes, military leaders and high prelates were its most frequent visitors, and this had a decisive influence on the iconographic programme that Raphael created.

The common thread that links the various frescoes is the theme of divine intervention. Fresh from a period of mixed fortunes due to his expansionist policies, Julius II entrusted the images with a strong political message: in the past as in the present, divine protection extends over the spiritual and temporal heritage of the Roman Church, and woe betide anyone who seeks to oppose it in any way.

The episodes depicted by Raphael in the Room of Heliodorus are the expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple, the miracle of the Mass at Bolsena, Leo the Great halting Attila's advance and the liberation of St Peter's.

Raphael designed the four Old Testament scenes in the vault, although some of the grotesques and arches may be attributed to Luca Signorelli, Bramantino, Lorenzo Lotto and Cesare da Sesto. All these works were part of the very first decoration ordered by Julius II at the beginning of his pontificate; a decoration that was interrupted and now completely replaced by this one because the Pope saw Raphael's first frescoes in a nearby room called the Segnatura.

The room takes its name from the biblical figure depicted by Raphael in The Expulsion of Heliodorus. The Syrian Heliodorus had entered the Temple in Jerusalem to plunder its priceless treasures. The high priest called for divine intervention, which came in the form of armed angels. Swords in hand, they drove Heliodorus from the temple and restored the sanctity of the desecrated space.

Although set in the distant past, the scene should be interpreted as a reference to Julius II's vigorous policy of defending the Church's heritage and lands. The Pope, depicted on the left of the fresco, witnesses the scene of the expulsion and, triumphant on his litter, presents himself as the modern restorer of broken order and legality.

The liberation of St Peter's takes place in three stages. On the left, a group of soldiers recoil in fear at the sudden light that pierces the night. In the centre, the focal point of the scene, the angel appears to Saint Peter in prison. However, St Peter believes it to be a dream and struggles to wake up. On the right, the divine messenger takes the Apostle by the hand and leads him out of the prison, avoiding the sleeping guards.

The scene has a strong symbolic value: it reminds those who go to audiences with the Pope that it is futile to use violence against the Vicar of Christ, both in the past and in the present.

Giulio II died in 1513 and did not live to see the completion of the decorative cycle, which was completed during the pontificate of his successor, Leo X.

In The Liberation of St Peter, the staircase leading to the prison is abruptly interrupted by the recess of the window. Instead of being a disruptive element, Raphael skilfully uses it to divide the narrative into three parts, as the shoulders of the window coincide with the massive walls of the cell above.

Among the many elements that divide and punctuate the narrative, light is the unifying principle of the entire scene, through continuous references and intertwining. Everywhere there are sources of light - natural, artificial and supernatural - everywhere there is a glimmer of hope. On the left, the torchlight illuminates the armour of the soldiers, while the moon illuminates the clouds and the night sky. In the other two scenes, the invention of the radiant angel who gives shape to things shrouded in darkness is extraordinary. Because of its incomparable beauty, it was described in the 17th century as 'composed of air and light, without mortal weight'.

The expulsion of Heliodorus, from whom the room takes its name, illustrates the biblical episode (2 Maccabees 3:21-28) of Heliodorus, who was sent by the King of Syria, Seleucus, to seize the treasure kept in the Temple of Jerusalem.

At the request of the high priest Onias, God sends a horseman assisted by two young men who beat and banish Heliodorus.

The pontiff who commissioned the work is depicted as a witness to the scene (in the foreground on the left), seated in a litter carried on the shoulders of the bearers of the litter. Of these, the one on the left is a portrait of Marcantonio Raimondi, engraver and friend of Raphael, who is himself portrayed in the other figure on the right.

The last fresco in this room depicts the meeting between Leo the Great and Attila. It was painted after the death of Julius II, pope from 1503 to 1513, during the reign of his successor, Leo X, who reigned from 1513 to 1521.

It is interesting to note that Leo X appears twice in this particular scene, both as Pope Leo the Great and as a cardinal. According to legend, during a meeting between Pope Leo the Great and Attila the Hun, Sts. Peter and Paul miraculously appeared with swords, convincing the Hun to abandon his plans to invade Italy and march on Rome.

Raphael places this event within the walls of Rome because the Colosseum, an aqueduct, an obelisk and other buildings can be seen. In reality, it took place in northern Italy, near Mantua.

The Mass of Bolsena depicts an event that took place in Bolsena, near Orvieto, in 1263.

A Bohemian priest was celebrating Mass; at the moment of consecration, the blood of Christ flowed from the host and stained the corporal, thus removing any doubt the celebrant might have had about transubstantiation - the transformation by which bread and wine become body and blood during the Eucharist. This miracle led to the establishment of the feast of Corpus Christi and the building of the cathedral in Orvieto, to which the body was later transferred.

Julius II, who was Pope between 1503 and 1513, saw this miracle while kneeling on the right side of the altar together with Cardinals Leonardo Grosso della Rovere, Raffaello Riario, Tommaso Riario, Agostino Spinola and his relatives who were also presidents of the group.

Works by Luca Signorelli, Bramantino, Lorenzo Lotto and Cesare da Sesto can still be seen in some of the grotesques and arches.

These are the remains of the first decorations begun at the beginning of Julius II's pontificate, but left unfinished and later replaced by the present decorations due to the pontiff's great affection for Raffaello's work on an early fresco found not far away in the Segnatura room.

It was Raphael who replaced the grotesques in this central part of the ceiling with four scenes from the Old Testament: Noah leaving the ark (Genesis 8:15-20), the sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22:1-14), Moses before the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-12) and Jacob's dream (Genesis 28:10-22).