Discovering Raphael: Room of Heliodorus

Posted On August 25, 2020

Last week we talked about the Room of the Segnatura.
Today, our second part of the column “Discovering Raphael” focuses on the Room of Heliodorus.

Pope Julius II used to host his private audiences here.
Raphael painted this room from 1511 and 1514. It was a difficult political moment for the Pope: his failing military campaign against French brought to the loss of Bologna. This inspired the iconographic project of the room: God always protects the Church. Even in the most hardest periods in history, he intervened against enemies.
During the Sack of Rome in 1527, some Landsknechts camped in this room, and unfortunately they ruined some details of these frescoes.

Expulsion of Heliodorus

This fresco, from whom the room takes its name, is based on the biblical episode from 2 Maccabees.
Heliodorus, by order of the king of Syria Seleucus IV Philopator, tried to seize the treasure in the Temple in Jerusalem. The high priest prayed God for help, who sent him an horseman and two youths to banish Heliodorus.
On the left, Pope Julius II witnesses the scene sitting on his litter carried by his chair bearers.

Liberation of St. Peter

As reported in Acts 12, Raphael shows how an angel sent by God saved St. Peter from prison.
The fresco is made of three scenes: in the center the angel wakes Peter and guide him out of the cell, as we see on the right, while on the left a guard gives the alarm.
The whole composition is a reference to Pope Julius II, who was the titular cardinal of the Basilica of St. Peter in Chains before the election.

The Mass at Bolsena

The episode took place in 1263, in the city of Bolsena (near Orvieto).
During the mass at the church of Santa Cristina, a Bohemian priest who doubted the doctrine of Transubstantiation witnessed a miracle. At the moment of the consecration, the eucharist began to bleed. The following year, Pope Urban IV established the feast of Corpus Christi.
In front of the priest, Pope Julius II kneels after witnessing the miracle personally.

Meeting of Leo the Great with Attila

This was the last fresco painted in this room. Here, we don’t find Pope Julius II anymore since it was completed one year after his death. Instead, Raphael portrayed his successor Leo X as Pope Leo I the Great.
The scene describes the meeting between the Pope and the Hun conqueror in 452. According to the legend, the apparition of St. Peter and St. Paul in the sky, armed with swords, persuaded Attila not to invade Rome.