The Transfiguration c. 1750 - 1765

Johann Georg Trautmann created 'The Transfiguration' using oil on canvas. The painting's dominant feature is its division into a darker, earthly realm and a brightly illuminated, ethereal one. The composition uses light and shadow to create a sense of awe and the divine, with figures reacting to the transfiguration of Christ. Trautmann's emphasis on light and form serves to elevate the spiritual moment, detaching it from the everyday. The brushstrokes are loose and fluid, adding to the sense of movement and transformation, as if the scene is still unfolding. The semiotic system here relies on light as a signifier of divinity, and the figures' gestures as expressions of faith and wonder. The stark contrast between the dark, grounded figures and the luminous, floating ones challenges fixed notions of space, suggesting a reality beyond the material world. This contrast is not merely aesthetic but also a theological statement about the intersection of the human and the divine.