Take The School of Athens by the Italian High Renaissance master Raphael, whose death years ago in is currently being commemorated around the world by major exhibitions and displays from Milan to London, Berlin to Washington DC.
Millions of eyes have marvelled at the eternal gathering of ancient philosophers and mathematicians, statesmen and astronomers that Raphael luminously imagines in his famous fresco. Yet it would seem that a small detail near the centre foreground of the painting, from which the true meaning of the masterpiece arguably spills, has gone almost completely unnoticed by historians and critics for half a millennium. Whatever colours and shapes, narratives and rhythms would ultimately adorn the four walls of this momentous chamber would oversee, if not potentially influence, some of the most consequential decisions affecting the lives and afterlives of all those who inhabited the sprawling Holy Roman Empire.
The stakes could not have been higher, and Raphael knew it. First up was a painting devoted to theology, followed quickly by one on the topic of poetry, entitled Parnassus, after the mountain where according to classical myth Apollo, the leader of the muses, resided.
Limbered up, Raphael was ready to take on the discipline of philosophy, which he would exalt by summoning into a timeless space nearly two dozen influential thinkers across a millennium of intellectual speculation — from Anaximander the 7th-Century BC exponent of all things infinite to Boethius, the 6th-Century AD author of The Consolation of Philosophy.
But as Raphael began to create preparatory sketches for the ambitious fresco, a problem presented itself. How could any observer of his prospective painting be expected to distinguish one philosopher from another? But Antisthenes from Xenophon? Diogenes from Socrates? Thinkers may think different thoughts, but their robes look remarkably the same. While the subjects of the painting are ancient Greek philosophers, the setting in which they are gathered is Roman.
The symbolism of the contrasting settings is obvious — theology and nature are the creations of God, philosophy and indoor are the creations of man.
The School Athens is undoubtedly a masterpiece of the Renaissance period and continues to be analysed and debated today. Related article: Vatican Virtual Tour. What does the School of Athens represent? The School of Athens represents the two opposing schools of thought in western philosophy — the physical world vs. History The School of Athens was painted between — as one fresco in the Stanza della Segnatura.
The Four Branches of Knowledge Each wall in the Stanza della Segnatura represents one of the four branches of knowledge during the Renaissance: theology, literature, justice and philosophy. Painted between and in the Apostolic Palace by Raphael, the School of Athens is one of the most important and fascinating frescos in history. Being a tourist attraction for over centuries and having a vibrant portrayal of several classical personas, the School of Athens painting has a lot to impress with all its essential particulars.
In the 15th century, there was a tradition of decorating private libraries with portraits of great thinkers.
Celebrated as a superstar amongst his contemporaries, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino was one of the most prolific artists of the High Renaissance. He started as a young apprentice to the great Pietro Perugino, a well-known painter of his day who also painted biblical scenes on the walls of the Sistine Chapel. Raphael was in his mids when he started his work on the Raphael Rooms. Having led a short yet eminent life, Raphael was buried in Pantheon in Rome , among many other famous personalities of Rome.
Dedicated to a theme of philosophy leading to knowledge , the School Of Athens Painting has 50 characters in total. These characters are great classical philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians from classical antiquity painted sharing their ideas and learning from each other.
Plato can be seen pointing upwards suggesting his cosmological theories, depicting the divide in their philosophies-another theme of the work. The School of Athens , Raphael 6. The building is a modification of Bramante's first design for St Peter's. Plato and Aristotle as Central Figures walking in a peripatetic manner through the Lyceum. A one-point linear perspective is used , one method to show 3-D objects on a 2-D surface. Lines which appear to go away from the viewer meet at a single point on the horizon, the so called vanishing point.
The perspective is such that this point is between Plato and Aristotle stressing the importance of these two persons. To an almost equal distance between Plato and Aristotle we have Euclid 23 and Pythagoras I see a transition from Philosophy to pure Science from left to right that also is represented by Apollo and Athena sculptures on the left and right side.
Many figures all except Socrates? There is also, although not perfect or proportional, some temporal ordering of the persons from the center. Study on the " School of Athens ". Plato's Academy or should it be better called Plato's park of olive trees? Was Plato's Academy founded earlier by Democritus? Cicero gives a part of the following list as heads of "Plato's Academy":. Damascius AD last head after the Byzantine Emperor orders the closing of the "pagan" Academy Christian religion is the only religion allowed.
Plato - BC holds a copy of his Timaeus , and gestures upward to the aetherial realm of his eternal forms. This Plato is probably a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci. He holds a copy of his Nichomachean Ethics -- and he indicates with his gesture the worldliness, the concreteness, of his contributions to philosophy.
Nicomachus was the father of Aristotle but also his son was called Nicomachus the mother some say was Herpyllis a concubine of Aristotle which he married after the death of his wife Pythias. Does his brown and blue colored clothes represent the two elements water and earth probably to show that his philosophy is grounded, material , whereas Plato's two colors represent fire and air?
And I," said he, "am Diogenes the dog. His father Icesias was a banker. Diogenes is seen alone, set apart: [ What is he reading? Diogenes, a philosopher, lived in a big barrel, instead of the traditional house.
He spent his nights wandering from house to house with a lantern, knocking on peoples' doors to find out if there was "an honest human inside. When Alexander the Great went to meet him, he found him sitting in front of his barrel, facing the sun.
As a great admirer of Diogenes, Alexander then asked him if there is anything he could give him, which today might be equivalent to being asked whether you would like to win the lottery. Diogenes thought for a while, and then asked politely if the Great King could simply This answer so impressed Alexander, that he exclaimed that if he were not Alexander, he would have liked to be Diogenes!
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