Analysis of Raphael´s Painting The School of Athens

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The School of Athens (Figure 1) is a fresco painting–a painting done in sections in the fresh plaster–on one of the four walls of the room, the Stanza della Segnatura this room is designated as papal library in the Vatican palace. In this image Raphael represents pictorially the intellectual activity of philosophy. He chooses to represent philosophy by depicting a large number of philosophers in the midst of their activities. The fifty-eight figures who occupy the grandiose architectural space are depicted in the midst of their activity: they are questioning, arguing, demonstrating, reading, and writing. Each figure is characterized so that it is not a mere compositional device, but a shorthand statement of the figure represented (Murray, 62). Raphael rendered the faces of the philosophers from classical statues if known, or else used his own contemporaries for models (Haas, 8) Raphael’s School of Athens is the first art work to represent the epitome of Greek philosophy in a unique manner. The fundamental conception of The School of Athens is without precedent in the tradition of European art. Before Raphael, artists depicted philosophy allegorically. (Most, 145). School of Athens depicts the whole complex product of Greek thought. Greek philosophy may be divided in three phases: the material, the speculative and the scientific. These three phases are depicted in Raphael's work, the material and the scientific are purely physical and occupy the lower level, whereas the speculative is depicted on the upper platform (Garigues, 409). In this paper we will analyze how the three phases of Greek philosophy are illustrated so skillfully in Raphael’s work The School of Athens. The School of Athens is entirely without precedent in the tr... ... middle of paper ... ...it to the fourth, who appears lost in ecstasy at the revelation he receives (Garigues, 419). Having arranged the grouping, the expression, the tout ensemble of his characters, Raphael must have felt somewhat at a loss for a fitting scene in which to place them. The architecture of the structure in the grand manner helped with conferring unity and opportunity to place the groups in a harmonious manner. The flight of steps is key to the placement of the philosophers into and across the space of the picture and permits the construction of an architectural framework which is not only rational spatially, but is in harmony with the significance of the subject (Murray, 64). On the one side, as presiding deity, he placed the sculptured image of Apollo, the god of inspiration, and of high endeavor; on the other, Minerva, the genius of wisdom, science, and practical life.

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