Raphael's Transfiguration

When Raphael was dead the last picture which he had painted was the Transfiguration, and they carried it at the head of the procession at his burial. That picture said nothing. It did nothing. It returned from his tomb, and was hung upon the wall.

And in its muteness, its inactivity, simply because it was full of the majesty and beauty of the Saviour, that picture has thrown a regent influence out. Dead though it be, and painted on canvas, it has penetrated every generous soul. It has gone from nation to nation; for beauty speaks in every language. Its silence has been more than all the eloquence of the Forum; and the joy and peace that it has given, what tongue can tell?

God knows, and I could form some slight conception of it as now and then I have glanced at the work of some great artist that has lifted me out of time, and into the real life of eternity.