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¶ … School of Athens is the most well-known of the frescoes painted by Raphael, an Italian Renaissance artist. Painted in two years from 1509-1511, Raphael painted the fresco as a commission where he had to decorate the Stanze di Raffaello rooms in the Apostolic Palace located in the Vatican. The fresco is meant to represent Philosophy and was finished after La Disputa, which represented theology on the opposite side. School of Athens is considered by many to be Raphael's masterpiece, perfectly embodying the essence of the Renaissance. (Cole and Gealt 53)
Depicting a branch of knowledge that was one of four frescoes, School of Athens has the label overhead of 'Causarum Cognitio' meaning 'Seek Knowledge of Causes' and emphasizes Aristotle's focus on wisdom and discovering the causes of things. This is why Plato and Aristotle are shown as the main and central figures within the scene. Apart from Aristotle and Plato, all the other philosophers shown in the piece pursued knowledge of first causes. Though most lived prior to the births of Plato and Aristotle and most were not Athenians, Raphael wished to bring the scene into Athens and title it as such in order to show the influence of ancient Greece.
An interesting thing to note is the lack of distinction made by Raphael with the Greek philosophers. Those that analyzed the piece suggest every famous ancient Greek philosopher reside in the painting. However,...
He is known for his big figure compositions and his 'Madonnas' like the Sistine Madonna. Born on April 6, 1483, Raphael was raised in Urbino, Italy and was apprentice to Perguino in 1504. Painting 'Madonna's after living for three years in Florence from 1504-1507, he went to Rome and painted the 'Room of the Signatura' frescoes from 1509-1511 in the Palace of the Vatican. He continued painting frescoes for the 'Room of Heliodorus' and in 1514 Raphael became the chief architect for Pope Julius II. He died six years later on his birthday in 1520 in Rome.
Iconography
There are several points of interest within the image. With 58 representations of once living historical figures, the School of Athens provides a wealth of interpretation especially when arguing for the identities of the majority of the carefully painted figures. (Hall 34) Many would imagine so many characters and images in one painting would create chaos, however through Raphael's use of triangular geometry in order to organize the fresco in an aesthetically and comprehensible way, all the images are easily distinguishable and highlighted through positioning.
For example, when looking at the painting for the first…
Works Cited
Cole, Bruce and Adelheid M Gealt. Art of The Western World. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991. Print.
Hall, Marcia B. Raphael's "School of Athens." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Print.
Janson, H. W and Anthony F Janson. History of Art. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2003. Print.
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" Bell's article underlines the thinking behind Raphael's masterpiece. It is not simply an imagined portrait of famous people; rather it is a philosophical treatise, in symbolic form, of what it meant to be a great man, as embodied in these different figures. Glenn Most, in his 1996 article "The School of Athens and its Pre-text" from Critical Inquiry agrees that the central question of the School of Athens is "How
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