The School of Athens by Raphael: Who's Who in the Hall of Philosophy (1509)
In the centre of a vast hall of marble arches and coffered vaults, two men walk towards us, deep in argument. The older one, white-bearded, points up to the sky; the younger one stretches his hand out flat, towards the earth. Around them, more than fifty figures read, write, teach, measure and dispute. Raphael's The School of Athens, painted in 1509–1511 on a wall of the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican, is the great image of the Renaissance belief in reason: the whole of ancient philosophy gathered in one room. The picture below is our vintage poster version of the painting; the original is shown further down.
🖼️ Get the vintage poster →License this image →
Artist: Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio, 1483–1520)
Date: 1509–1511
Medium: Fresco, about 5 × 7.7 m
Location: Stanza della Segnatura, Apostolic Palace, Vatican Museums
Commissioned by: Pope Julius II
A room for the pope's library
In 1508 the young Raphael, then about twenty-five, was called to Rome by Pope Julius II to decorate a series of rooms in the papal apartments. The Stanza della Segnatura was probably meant to house the pope's private library, and its four walls illustrate the four branches of knowledge: Theology, Philosophy, Poetry and Justice. The School of Athens represents Philosophy. Facing it across the room is the Disputation of the Holy Sacrament, a vision of theology, so that ancient reason and Christian faith look at each other across the space.
Who is who?
Raphael did not label his figures, and many identifications are still debated, but the central pair is certain. Plato, on the left, holds his dialogue Timaeus and points upwards, to the world of eternal ideas. Aristotle, beside him, holds his Ethics and gestures towards the earth, the world of experience and observation. In two gestures, Raphael summed up the two great directions of Western thought. Plato is traditionally said to have the features of Leonardo da Vinci.
Around them, the other philosophers are grouped by subject. On the left, Socrates, in an olive-green robe, counts off his arguments on his fingers to a group of listeners. In the lower left foreground, Pythagoras writes in a book while a boy holds up a tablet with a diagram of musical harmony. Sprawled alone across the steps, half-dressed and indifferent, lies Diogenes the Cynic. In the lower right, Euclid or Archimedes bends over a slate with a pair of compasses, demonstrating a geometrical figure to his students; his face is often said to be that of the architect Donato Bramante. Behind him stand Ptolemy, holding a terrestrial globe, and Zoroaster, holding a celestial one.
In the foreground, a brooding figure leans on a block of marble, writing: he is usually identified as Heraclitus, the philosopher of change, and given the features of Michelangelo, who was painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling a few hundred metres away at the same time. He does not appear in Raphael's preparatory cartoon, and seems to have been added at a late stage. And at the far right edge, a young man in a dark cap looks straight out at us: this is generally accepted as Raphael's self-portrait.
Architecture as an idea
The setting is as important as the figures. The great barrel vaults and the coffered arches recall the plans Bramante was then drawing up for the new St Peter's Basilica, and the niches hold statues of Apollo, god of light and music, and Minerva, goddess of wisdom. The perspective lines all converge between Plato and Aristotle, so that the whole space leads our eye to the two philosophers. It is the clearest demonstration of the High Renaissance ideal: order, balance and harmony, made visible.
Raphael and Michelangelo were working at the same moment in the Vatican; see Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam on the Sistine ceiling. In Venice, Giorgione was painting a very different vision of philosophers, quiet and mysterious, in The Three Philosophers. For two of the men in the fresco seen by later painters, see David's The Death of Socrates and Langetti's Diogenes and Alexander.
Where can you see it?
The fresco is still on the wall where Raphael painted it, in the Stanza della Segnatura, one of the four Raphael Rooms of the Vatican Museums in Rome. The rooms are on the standard route through the museums on the way to the Sistine Chapel; booking tickets in advance is strongly recommended.
Raphael’s School of Athens reimagined as an Art Nouveau vintage art poster by Sapiens Verbum.
Choose your size and frame →
See the vintage poster collection →License this image →
See Raphael’s The School of Athens framed on your wall: a museum-quality print, canvas or poster from the Sapiens Verbum print shop.
Choose your size and frame →Printed and shipped by Fine Art America · 30-day money-back guarantee
The School of Athens is one of the thirty pictures in our book The 30 Most Famous Paintings in the History of Art: The Myths They Hide, the History They Reveal. Each chapter takes one painting, the myth around it and the history behind it. On Kindle, in paperback, in hardcover and as an audiobook.
Get the book →See all 30 paintings →
Watch the video essay on @SapiensVerbum on YouTube.
Sources
Vatican Museums, “School of Athens”, Stanza della Segnatura; Wikipedia, “The School of Athens”.
Comments
Post a Comment