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Raphael s painting School of Athens 1509 11

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Underlining the new broad-mindedness of the period, classical iconography representing the search of man for the truth was even embraced by the Pope, not just by artists. This type of humanistic, anatomically correct representation would have been unthinkable earlier, both in its images as well as its iconography. It is still exciting art because it creates the feeling of being alive in ancient Athens, watching the embodied philosophers at work, and helps bring their thoughts to life. They are not beautiful, yet seem vividly alive and interesting to the eye. The challenging, puzzle-like nature of playing guess who are the different philosophers adds to the visual delight of the painting. The painting is an intellectual puzzle as well as is about men who enjoyed wrestling with intellectual puzzles

If an artist were to create such a work today, what type of representation would be created? Would it be a crowd of celebrities, like a Vanity Fair style magazine cover, or a representation of all of the American presidents interacting, across time and space? Raphael created his work when it was still considered possible to know everything of value of the classical world and today knowledge is much more specializedthere