God Appearing to Noah

An engraving usually described as based upon a fairly complete model by Raphael for 'God Appearing to Noah', one of the four scenes painted in the vault of the Stanza di Eliodoro in the Vatican. The subject has been often misidentified: Vasari interpreted it as 'God Blessing the Sed of Abraham', and Bartsch as 'God Commanding Noah to Build the Ark'. For further discussion, see Bibliographic References.