Artist- Rafael-1514
"Rafael created the most exhausted genre picture that exists: an image of flight, rescue and helpless lamination." -Jakob Burckhardt, Der Cicerone, reprint of the Ist edition, p. 922.
The artist expresses and portrays the power of a papal blessing can provide to the weak and nieve minded people of Rome. The painting shows a man rescuing an elder man from the fire in light of being forgiven himself, also there is a woman handing down a baby free of sin and giving up herself. Pope Leo IV is preaching the word and it is believed that he could stop the fire by simply preaching salvation.
Rafael succeeds in representing how the church had total control over population. Pope Leo IV stands above the people who are bowing to him, all the while the rest of the city or "non believers" or perhaps the ones most filled of sin, go into the fire and help those suffering inside. Women are holding their children teaching them to obey the blessing of the pope and all will be fine. Men carry water to the sight of where pope Leo is, not toward the fire. What shold be a mess of confusion and panic seems to be a scene of calmness and peace.
This painting is known to have a lot of controversy. What did Rafael really want to portray? Did he succeed? Is the fire meant to represent the city of Rome burning or is it meant to represent the fires of hell? All that is clear is the power of pope Leo's blessing over a desperate civilization.
