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. Whereas, Aristotle is suggesting the basis of his practical ethics by gesturing towards the floor. However, the main personalities other than Plato and Socrates find their portrayal in this magnificent piece of art. Being the official residence of the Pope of the Catholic Church and a center of the religious and administrative functions of the Vatican City, the Vatican Palace is sometimes misapprehended to be impossible to visit by many people.
Numerous tours keep going ahead every day where the visitors can enjoy the magnificent rooms elaborated by the guides. Raphael has used linear perspective with a central vanishing point in the School of Athens painting that marks the high point of classical Renaissance. Some people think that Jackson Pollock created great art. Meanwhile, another artistic great of the Renaissance, Leonardo Da Vinci, is said to have taught Raphael the perspective projection techniques used in the painting.
Both artists are featured as models in the painting, with Da Vinci depicted as Plato and Michelangelo as Heraclitus. Each wall in the Stanza della Segnatura represents one of the four branches of knowledge during the Renaissance: theology, literature, justice and philosophy. The School of Athens, on the east wall, depicts the study of philosophy by illustrating the greatest scientists, mathematicians and philosophers from classical antiquity gathered together in an imaginary scenario discussing and sharing ideas.
On the opposite wall, the Disputation of the Holy Sacrament illustrates theology, the study of the divine. By placing theology opposite philosophy, Raphael put the two branches of knowledge on the same level. The knowledge of theology is depicted as irrefutable and passed on in a linear line of authority from God, while the human knowledge of philosophy is researched, debated, refutable and passed on by discussion and explanation.
On the two smaller walls, Parnassus depicts literature and Cardinal and Theological Virtues and the Law depicts justice. The two central figures of the painting are widely recognised as Plato and Aristotle. By contrast, the younger figure and student, Aristotle, steadies his hand toward the ground illustrating his interests in the observable aspects of the world. Many believe the divergence between these two philosophical schools, theoretical and physical, is a central theme in the painting, with the other figures in the painting divided according by these ideals.
Other contemporaries of Raphael seem to have been singled out for glorification. Standing next to Raphael on the extreme right is his friend the painter Sodoma. In fact, it was Sodoma's own frescoes that Pope Julius ordered Raphael to destroy for his own. The model for Zoroaster is said to be the humanist scholar Pietro Bembo, possibly a source of many of Raphael's ideas.
The architect Bramante is portrayed as Euclid or Archimedes. Bramante was a mentor of sorts and it was probably from him that Raphael got most of the geometry and architectural composition for his painting, as well as many of the philosophical ideas in it. Leonardo da Vinci's portrait is also self evident in the School of Athens. His reincarnation as Plato is somewhat curious though, given that Leonardo left Florence, and its overt Platonism, for the more congenial Aristotelian circle of scholars, scientists and engineers at Milan.
Perhaps it was Raphael's duel admiration and preference for Plato, combined with his respect for his teacher Leonardo that led him to identify the two men. There is a great deal of conjecture concerning the solitary Heraclitus figure.
Heraclitus was the only figure in the whole School of Athens who was absent from Raphael's preliminary drawing of the painting. Furthermore, technical examination of the fresco confirms that Heraclitus was painted in later, on an area of fresh plaster put on after the adjacent figures were completed. At the time of painting the School of Athens, Michelangelo was working on the Sistine Chapel and despite his efforts to shroud his work in total secrecy, we know Raphael was able to sneak in and have a look.
Was this the inspiration for Heraclitus, who not only looks like Michelangelo, with its sculptural solidity, but looks like it was painted by Michelangelo? After being summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II in , Raphael was charged with painting a cycle of frescoes in a suite of medium-sized rooms in the Vatican papal apartments in which Julius II lived and worked. These rooms, which include the School of Athens, were known as the Stanze. Raphael's concept for the School of Athens was to bring into harmony the spirits of antiquity and Christianity and reflect the contents of the pope's library with themes of theology, philosophy, jurisprudence and the poetic arts.
Raphael's inspiration for the room is worldly and spiritual wisdom displaying the accord which Renaissance humanists perceived between Christian and Greek philosophy.
The theme of wisdom is an appropriate inspiration as this room was the council chamber for the Apostolic Signatura where most of the important papal documents were signed and sealed. Unlike some of his latter frescoes, The Stanza della Segnatura was decorated almost entirely by Raphael himself.
Perspective: As a spectator viewing the School of Athens you are made to feel that you could step into the space in this picture, as if walking into a theatrical setting on a stage. There is a series of horizontal planes across the checkered floor, up the steps, past the pillars supporting the barrel vaulting, and into a domed area, which is indicated above the heads of Plato and Aristotle by the curved line under the window.
The all important vanishing point of the fresco is somewhere in the space between the heads of Plato and Aristotle.
The use of the sky and the incompleteness of the architecture are indications that the School of Athens is not a physical building that actually existed in the past, nor one inhabited by ordinary human beings.
That the vanishing point is constructed in such a carefully considered place i. The point where the two diagonals intersect can be referred to as the divine center between the two philosophers. From the right hand side particularly, the School of Athens invites the viewer to see another strong pair of diagonals starting from the extreme lower corners of the picture.
Along these diagonals the heads of the Gods line up with their opposite philosophical heads i. Apollo with Aristotle and vice versa. Therefore the dialectical interplay of ideas and reconciliation between the two philosophies goes on. Color palette: Though the school of Athens is not necessarily defined by its use of color, its philosophical content displays a wide variety of colors.
Use of light: The separation between the concrete and the abstract in the School of Athens is developed by its lighting and figures.
The lighting is very logical and consistent with reality. It comes from the direction of the window and fills the actual room. However, the philosophers themselves are posed and seen separately, like life models gesturing in the studio.
Notice how they don't communicate with one another. Mood, Tone and Emotion: His cartoon of the School of Athens show the importance of maintaining the relationship between the figures but also the chiaroscuro effects that are so important for High Renaissance art. Brush stroke: Raphael was a perfectly balanced painter and in the School of Athens he demonstrates flawless brush stroke.
He used different drawings to refine his poses and compositions, to a greater extent than most other painters judging by the number of variants that survive to this day. Julius II was a highly cultured man who surrounded himself with the most illustrious personalities of the Renaissance.
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