The Transfiguration

The Transfiguration of Christ as described in three of the four Gospels is represented in several scenes on this capital: Christ has led the apostles Peter, John and Jacob up a high mountain and is transfigured before their very eyes: “His face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light” (Mt 17:1–8). Jesus speaks with the Old Testament prophets Moses and Elijah. Two of the apostles kneel down by a tree before this wonder. The tree could be an allusion to the booths that Peter proposes should be made (Mk 9:5).
The two other sides of the capital show Jesus and his disciples on their return to Jerusalem; a view of the architecture of the city takes up the whole of the north side. Peter, John and James hold a closed book. Jesus turns to them and presumably addresses to them the following words from the Gospel: “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of man is raised from the dead” (Mt 17:9). The closed books presumably signify the message that has still to be revealed.
The spiritual sense of this miraculous apparition of the prophets, who had prophesied salvation through the cross, and of the apostles who would soon bear witness to this reality, is contained in the words of Jesus himself: “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets [i.e. the Old Testament]; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them”.
The numerous figures in this capital reveal a sophisticated style: the bodies express motion, the movements are fluent, the details carefully rendered and precise. The composition is masterly and the overlapping of planes on the south side is really convincing.

Jesus Peter Jacob John Moses Elijah Jerusalem Transfiguration tree