Disputation of the Holy Sacrament
fresco by Raphael
The Disputation of the Sacrament (Italian: La disputa del sacramento), or Disputa, is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1509 and 1510 as the first part of Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms that are now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. At the time, this room was known as the Stanza della Segnatura, and was the private papal library where the supreme papal tribunal met.
Description
In the painting, Raphael has created a scene spanning both heaven and earth. Above, Christ is surrounded by an aureole, flanked by the Blessed Virgin Mary and John the Baptist to his right and left (an arrangement known as the Deësis). Other various biblical figures such as Peter (far left, holding keys), Adam (far left, bared chest), John the Evangelist (left, writing), King David (left, holding lyre), Saint Lawrence (left, wearing purple), Judas Maccabeus (right, wearing gold armor), Stephen (right, wearing green), Moses (right, with horns of light and holding the Ten Commandments), James the Elder (right, wearing white), Abraham (right, holding knife), and Paul (far right, holding book and sword) are to the sides. God the Father sits above them all in the golden light of heaven and adored by angels, blessing with his right hand and holding the Earth in his left. Below Christ's feet is the Holy Spirit in the typical form of a dove, to whose sides are books of the four Gospels held open by putti.
Below, on an altar sits the monstrance. The fringe of the altar reads, "Julius II Pont.
“Disputation of the Holy Sacrament” enters the record as fresco by Raphael. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Disputation, Holy and Sacrament can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Disputation of the Holy Sacrament” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Disputation, Holy and Sacrament provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q549953. VIAF identifies the subject as 184809985. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1509 and 1510.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Disputation of the Holy Sacrament” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.