Proceeding to the left, the visitor can admire the famous scene of the Miracle of Bolsena, masterfully arranged above a window. The episode illustrated took place in Bolsena in 1263: while a priest was celebrating Mass, tormented by doubts about the real presence of Christ in the consecrated host, he suddenly saw drops of blood dripping from it which stained the corporal.
On the wall opposite the entrance Attila (King of the Huns) Turned Back from Rome is shown meeting St. Leo the Great. The fourth and last scene in the Room of Heliodorus is the Deliverance of St. Peter from Prison. Once again the artist has found a brilliant solution to the problem created by the presence of a window: in the lunette above, the apostle's cell penetrated by an angel shining with light is portrayed. In contrast, on either side the jailers lie on two flights of steps, stunned by the impact of the heavenly messenger's sudden appearance. The background on the left is lit by a gentle moon veiled in clouds which gives the scene a touch of profound melancholy. The decoration of the room is completed by the biblical scenes on the ceiling attributed to Guglielmo di Marcillat, a well known 16th-century painter of stained-glass, and by the mosaic paving, an example of Roman art of the 2nd century AD.
The visitor then moves on into the Room of the Segnatura, so called because it was the meeting place of the ecclesiastical court of that name. This room was the first in which Raphael painted his frescoes, between 1509 and 1511, and it is particularly important because they are almost entirely the master's own work.
The Disputation of the Blessed Sacrament on the great wall opposite the entrance is a broad and serene composition, suffused with warm light.
The fresco above the window, to the left as one observes the Disputation, illustrates three of the cardinal virtues, Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance; beneath, two monochromatic scenes (that is, of a single color) next to the window, represent the fourth cardinal virtue, Justice: on the left is the Emperor Justinian delivering the Pandects (civil laws) in the 6th century; on the right, Pope Gregory IX approving the Decretals that is, the codices of ecclesiastical law (8th century).
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