ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Raphael’s image utilizes the earlier ritual tradition to convey a specifically Julian theme: neither Julius nor Raphael could have anticipated the revolution which would make the painting’s meaning less than patent. Greater clarity was required of Raphael’s image because any ambiguity would distort the explicit meaning which, as will be argued, pertains to the patron. The image of the Church founded atop a mountain, which occurs a number of times in the Office, is used in the Versicle and may be alluded to in the construction works in the left background of the Disputa. As a parallel reading of the text and image will show, the book is a Breviary, and Raphael’s script is the Office for Matins of the Feast of All Saints; his task was to assemble its textual motifs into a visual whole.
