The School of Athens and The Birth of Venus:
The Display of Humanism in Art Throughout the Renaissance To understand Raphael’s, The School of Athens, we must first analyze the Greek ideals displayed in the art. Firstly, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, otherwise known as Raphael, was apprenticed at a young age to another well-known artist known as Pietro Perugino. By the time Raphael was twenty-one, he had surpassed his master and moved to Florence, Italy, where he would work for the next four years with the influence of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, as they were leading artists in that city at that time. All the work he had done and everything that had influenced him culminated in 1508, when he was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint
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Aristotle was one of the most influential Greek philosophers of his time and can be identified rather easily through what he is holding: his book the Timaeus, whereas Plato can be seen holding his book titled Nicomachean Ethics. While facing the viewer, the two are depicting their styles of philosophy with gestures; Aristotle is pointing upward, which is reflective of his idealistic philosophies which focus on the non-materialistic. This is the opposite of Plato’s in which his gesture is towards the ground, reflecting his down-to-earth philosophies that focus on what’s real. Secondly, the form and colors of the robes Plato and Aristotle are reflective of their philosophies. Plato wears red and purple which in this case represent fire and ether (or what we would consider the air), which bare no weight, and with that be regarded as his philosophies: non-materialistic. Aristotle on the other hand has blue and brown robes which are water and earth respectively; having weight and represent his philosophies based upon the materialistic and visible world. Lastly, Plato and Aristotle’s philosophical differences appear to divide the room in half. To the left of Plato, the viewer can see the ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras, who believed that there was a realm beyond the physical one. To contrast, another famous Greek mathematician Euclid is show on the bottom right corner, who believed in what can be measured. To add to this, there is the statue of Apollo, the god of music, poetry, etc., who represents mostly Platonic philosophies, and in contrast a statue of Athena, the god of war and wisdom, who represents Aristotle’s philosophies. (Harris/Beth,
During the Renaissance, people were dedicated to studying human works. They would observe from real life to gain inspiration, new ideas, and to try to recreate the world as they saw it in their art. New techniques such as scientific and atmospheric perspective were created, changing art forever. Artists would use their skills to create works for patrons, from the Church, various guilds, and other religious orders. During the High Renaissance, Julius II commissioned Raphael to decorate the Vatican Palace. The first of the rooms he decorated was The “Room of the Signature”, where he painted The School of Athens. Originally, this room housed Julius II’s personal library, but later on it would be the room where papal documents were signed. In 1508, Raphael began painting four frescoes that represented theology, philosophy, law, and the arts. As stated in Janson’s History of Art Volume II, This fresco “represents a summation of High Renaissance humanism, for it attempts to represent the unity of knowledge in one grand scheme.” Raphael’s The School of Athens is a prime example of humanistic art, as evidenced by the subject of the art itself, the classical elements in the piece, and it’s scientific and illusionistic rendering.
Though Plato was Aristotle’s teacher, their ideas could not differ more in relation to Doryphoros. While Plato would feel that it is worthless, Aristotle would feel that it is very valuable to the process of learning more about our very natures. The duality of their opinions is very similar to the duality we can see in Doryphoros mentioned above. Plato was on a kind of warpath with creative expression, yet student Aristotle embraced it with calm analysis. In Doryphoros we see their opinions in juxtaposition to one another. If nothing else, Doryphoros expresses the masculine, logical side of human nature with near effortlessness.
They also had the use of perspective and many times real people and settings were represented. Examples of these Renaissance paintings would be Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Raphael’s School of Athens, and Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. The Birth of Venus is a good example of humanism as the focus is Venus, the Roman goddess of love and Venus is standing contrapposto in the middle of the painting. The School of Athens is another perfect example as Greco-Roman architecture is prominent and the sculptures are painted in the contrapposto stance. The Last Supper expresses the idea that any individual had unlimited potential. Leonardo also uses facial expressions of the people to show who Christ
Though the Renaissance era included all of Europe, Italy was the cradle of the movement. The cities of Florence, Rome and Venice were of great importance to this period. Major artists created art mainly in these three. As the center of Italy, Rome held the residence of the Pope and many other important factors. Throughout history, the Roman Catholic Church was very insistent on promoting their ideas. During this time, they used artists and their creativity to promote the Bible and other aspects of their beliefs. Artists were paid, or commissioned by patrons (often the Pope) to create art they wanted. One of the most ambitious patrons was Pope Julius II, who realized the impact visual images had on people’s ideas (Kleiner, 599). Pope Julius II was called the warring Pope, because he often went and involved himself in wars. He also held very humanistic ideas. Because of this, Michelangelo’s relationship to Pope Julius II was very different from his relationship with Pope Leo X, who succeeded Julius II. Julius, because of his adaptions to humanistic thoughts, he let Michelangelo express himself to the fullest, even when forcing him to paint the Sistine Chapel. Leo X, however, was very critical of everything Michelangelo set out upon. This resulted a strained relationship, and eventually abandonment of projects that were supposed to be completed. It is clear that Pope Julius II had a liking for Michelangelo, while the Medici’s looked on him as a type of lowly artist subject to their will.
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)
Which is why there was a focus on paintings to look more naturalistic, just as Greek and Rome did with statues of human figures (being accurate by giving a variance to posture and giving the proper portion). The Statue of Diadoumenos (Metmuseum.org) is an example of naturalism and if compared with the painting of Adam and Eve from artist Albrecht Dürer (metmusem.org), who found interest in “the idea that the perfect human form corresponded to a system of proportion and measurements.” Renaissance humanism began to break from the mold of being reliant on a religious figure or text; they believed that everything could be solved without religion and through nature. It was reflective of Greek thought in literature from prominent figures such as Socrates and
In the School of Athens, Raphael portrayed the splendid scenes of philosophers, scientists and artists in this school. The school of Athens was set up by Plato, who is the ancient Greek idealistic philosopher. The central side of the picture is Plato and his disciple Aristotle, who have intense discussions. Although Plato's teacher, Socrates, was no longer alive when he founded the Academy of Athens, however, Raphael drawn Socrates in the left of a group of characters, to show the hierarchy of philosophy. Different gestures of them illustrated different idea on philosophy. Plato stretched out his finger pointing on the above represents the idealism
Therefore, many of the philosophers disagreed with each other and came up with very different answers for the same concepts. Plato also did not know the answers to all of the questions that arose in the pre-Socratic era. Plato decided to look back on the pre-Socratics era in particular at the philosophers Heraclitus and Parmenides. He agreed with Heraclitus who believed our world is constantly changing and with Parmenides who believed that the real world is not the same as the world of our experience. Plato chose to look at materialism and also his theory of Forms in a two-world setting in order to attempt to answer the questions of the universe. The two worlds Plato is talking about are: a world that is in constant flux (the world we live in) and a world that is ever-changing (the real world, otherwise known as Forms). Plato’s Forms distinguishes things that are real from things in our mind that we perceive as real. Plato also made the argument that reality is different than our worldly experience. Plato believed that material objects can imitate the forms because they have order, however, Aristotle’s disagreed. However, Aristotle thought that Plato’s concept of “participation” didn’t make sense. Aristotle believed that the world we live in is our reality and he argued that Plato’s idea of forms
Firstly, Plato's concept of reality contrasts with Aristotle's concept. Plato's theory of ideal forms claims that a perfect world exists beyond the world around us. Our world contains forms imperfectly copied from the ideal forms of the world beyond. In contrast, Aristotle's theory of the natural world states that our world is reality. Aristotle thought the world consists of natural forms, not necessarily ideal or imperfect.
We have two great philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. These are great men, whose ideas have not been forgotten over years. Although their thoughts of politics were similar, we find some discrepancies in their teachings. The ideas stem from Socrates to Plato to Aristotle. Plato based moral knowledge on abstract reason, while Aristotle grounded it on experience and tried to apply it more to concrete living. Both ways of life are well respected by many people today.
Aristotle and Plato were both great thinkers but their views on realty were different. Plato viewed realty as taking place in the mind but Aristotle viewed realty is tangible. Even though Aristotle termed reality as concrete, he stated that reality does not make sense or exist until the mind process it. Therefore truth is dependent upon a person’s mind and external factors.
Both Plato and Aristotle are among the most influential philosophers in the history. Socrates was another famous philosopher who greatly influenced Plato. Plato was the pupil of Socrates and later Plato became the teacher of Aristotle. Although Aristotle followed his teachings for a long time, he found many questionable facts in his teachings and later on became a great critic of Plato’s teachings. Since Aristotle found faults in Plato, hence their work is easily comparable as it is based on the common aspects of philosophy. In this paper I will first explain some similarities and then I shall explain the differences between the theories of Plato and Aristotle.
Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato were two of the most influential and knowledgeable ancients in our history. Their contributions and dedication to science, language and politics are immensely valued centuries later. But while the two are highly praised for their works, they viewed several subjects entirely differently, particularly education practices, and human ethics and virtue.
Aristotle argued and disagreed with Plato’s views of the self and soul being a separate from the body. Aristotle’s view is that all humans have a soul, yet they cannot be separate from the body in which they reside. To him, there are four sections of the soul; the desiderative and vegetative parts on the irrational side are used to help one find what they are needing and the calculative and scientific parts on the rational side are
Let us start with some similarities between the two that will lead us to understand why Aristotle deviated from Plato’s beliefs on the arts. Both of these thinkers believed in the idea or the unchanging rational essence, which shapes everything we know. To them, nothing can be understood without understanding the idea or form of it. Aristotle however was more tolerant towards art and tried to rationalize the tragedies, for example, rather than reject them as Plato did. Even though, he did not explicitly say that he was countering Plato’s theories about art, in his writings that was what he