At the Room of Heliodorus at the Vatican Museums, we find four fantastic frescoes painted by the Raphael's skilful hands (and if you want to read more about another incredible fresco, that one the "Liberation of St Peter", click here). Among them today I want to talk a little bit about his "The meeting between Leo the great and Attila". Here the master of the Renaissance represents the historic meeting, which took place in 452 near the Mincio, which occurred between pope Leo I and Attila, the Hun, nicknamed the "Scourge of God". It is time to know more about it.

Raphael shows us the barbarian in royal robe, with a crown on his head, dispelling the myth that tells us how Attila was a savage killer that can lead a horde undisciplined of men. See, however, the gesture of Attila, who seems to almost fall from his horse in surprise and fright. Due to what? In the presence of St. Peter and St. Paul, patrons of Rome, who, sword in hand, are coming down from heaven to give assistance to the Pope, that is so proud and confident on his horse. Interesting to note the havoc in the ranks of Attila (see, for example, the white horse runaway in the foreground), in stark contrast with the calm, hieratic procession pontifical. It is striking how Raphael has wanted to set the scene in Rome (you can see the Colosseum in the background, for example) when in reality it was not. Why?

Simply because the pope who commissioned the fresco, Leo X, wanted to give a message of stability and strength, as if to say that the Church is always helped by God, even in the darkest moments, and as black as that of a attack. Notice how the face of the Pope is the portrait of Leo X, who wished to enter the scene and in the episode. There is another curiosity related to the Pope and his portrait: do you can see the two cardinals, riding their steeds, behind the pope?

The first man, the one in the foreground, is...the Pope! Yes, because when Raphael began the drafting of the fresco, Leo X was only a cardinal. Then, in the course of work, the pontiff Giulio II, who commissioned the work to Raphael, died leaving the throne of Peter to Leo X. The Pope simply said Raphael to add another portrait, even if the pontiff already had his face on the fresco, when he was just a cardinal. 

But now let's discover something more about the historical fact. Attila seemed unstoppable, and Leo the Great, also mindful of the sack Rome in 410, when he was a child, tried everything and for everything to not to repeat the tragic events that he himself lived in the first person. Then he met Attila near the Mincio, and there, no one knows how, persuaded him to go back by saving Rome and not only. According to Prospero d'Aquitania, a chronicler of that time, this event took place in this way: "He [Pope Leo X] started that mission [...] hoping in the help of God and being sure that He is always able to pay attention to the difficulties of His believers. His faith was not contradicted. Attila received the legation with great dignity and he was so happy to see the Pope that he decided to leave the war in order to go beyond the shores of the Danube after the peace". But how did the Pope convince Attila to do it? We do not know yet. Maybe he gave him a large sum of money, perhaps the soldiers of Attila were tired of wars and raids, maybe Attila (as christian sources tell us) had a nightmare in which he saw the two patron saints of Rome, counter it with force, putting him in fear. Perhaps, according to other interpretations, Attila did not want to fall victim to malaria or other epidemics that hit Rome and the whole Italy in those years. Who knows...