The Transfigured Christ

The choice of subject was not casual, as it was produced in the year that Bergamo was besieged by French troops, supported by the Holy Roman Emperor, and only two years after Louis XII of France had called an assembly of prelates, threatening schism. The work therefore represented a return to the unifying values of faith. The painter was accompanied by a Franciscan theologian during the work's production.

The work nominally portrays the Transfiguration of Christ,^[3] though it omits the three apostles traditional to paintings of that event and relegates the figures of Moses and Elijah to the distance. All three persons of the Holy Trinity are represented, with the Holy Spirit as a white dove and the Father as white light, a cloud and words on scrolls above and beside the Son, a representation of the Trinity very different to that Previtali later produced for the church of Almenno San Salvatore.^[3] The scrolls are very narrow, probably due to the space where the work was to be hung – the church stipulated that it could not cover the existing frescoes of The Life of St Francis by Jacopino Scipioni.^[3]

The tree behind Christ casts a shadow, intimating his Passion and Resurrection.^[4] In the left and right background is a naturalistic landscape and the River Jordan, referring to Christ's baptism,^[3] another event marked by the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

• Mauro Zanchi (2009). Andrea Previtali il colore prospettico di maniera belliniana (in Italian). Ferrari Editrice.