Many talented artists lived during the Renaissance period in Italy. For example, Andrea del Verrocchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Benozzo Gozzoli, Carlo Crivelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Pisanello, Donatello and others. One of the great artists of this period is Raphael, who created numerous great works, which are still valued highly all over the world. His artworks are the reflection of his great artistic talent that will never die. He is considered as one of the famous artists of all time, who made a contribution to the development of art. Today, Raphael’s works can be found in almost all museums all over Europe. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci he was respected as a great master of the High Renaissance period, who set a difficult task to himself to create amazing masterpieces. Compared to other Masters of that time, Raphael was productive. His works render the spirit of the people, their way of life, their mentality and their manners of that period. Raphael was an only artist, who made a deep impression on Pope Julius II and the papal court in Italy. In 1508 Raphael was called to Rome by Pope Julius II and offered to decorate one of the main rooms in his apartment. His works are divided into three periods: his early career period, which was influenced by his teacher; the Florentine period, when Raphael came to the city for four years; and his final years in, which he created his best artworks of all time.
Raphael’s first task was to paint a cycle of frescoes in a suite of rooms in the papal houses, in which Julius lived and worked. The room, where the Pope lived and worked, was best known as the Stanze, Stanza della Segnatura. Raphael made an interpretation of the philosophical scheme of the frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura. The four main walls in the Stanza Della Segnatura were decorated with different paintings2. By these four rooms Raphael represented four branches of knowledge: philosophy, poetry, law, and theology. The larger walls were occupied by the frescoes Disputa and the School of Athens, while the smaller ones were decorated by the Parnassus and Cardinal Virtues. The most important of these four frescoes were Disputa and the School of Athens. The architecture of these frescoes has a new and impressive grandeur.
The Disputa reflects the heavenly vision of God and his prophets and apostles near him. In this artwork, the author included both Heaven and the Earth. You can see the four principal personalities in Disputa: Doctors of the Church, Saints Gregory the Great and Jerome on the left side of the altar, Ambrose and Augustine on the opposite side. Moreover, you can find the figures of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Pope Innocent III, Dante, Pope Julius II, who commissioned the work from Raphael and many other famous people of that time. Everything in the painting is clear and virtually self-evident, despite its complexity.
On the other hand, The School of Athens shows an allegory of perpetual knowledge, or philosophy. In his painting, Raphael made the room come alive with the figures of great Greek philosophers in action, like writing, thinking and discussing something. In The School of Athens it is shown all the greatest philosophers, scientists and mathematicians from classical antiquity, who are gathered together in one room sharing their ideas and learning from each other. They all lived at different times, however, in this picture they are gathered together under one roof. In the center of the frescoe it is reflected the figure of Plato and Aristotle surrounded by philosophers, past and present, in an outstanding architectural setting. From this pictorial representation, we can see the historical continuity of Platonic thought. This means that Plato and Aristotle were the most important figure of that period. The School of Athens is considered as Raphael’s most famous frescoes and one of the most significant artistic creations of the High Renaissance Period. It was painted between 1510 and 1511. In the School of Athens, Raphael illustrates different figures with various gestures and poses that are not repeated. He emphasized the figures of Plato and Aristotle in the center of the painting, each of them holding their great books, namely Timaeus, which shows the origin and nature of the universe, and Ethics, in which it is presented human nature as the basis for morality. Moreover, there are also figures of other philosophers, including Euclid, Pythagoras, Socrates, Ptolemy, Diogenes and Zoroaster. Additionally, there are some of the famous works of great artists like Perugino, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Bramante.
Raphael made an amazing composition by presenting the equal space between the two great figures, Plato and Aristotle, which refers the painting an unchangeable balance. In the center of Raphael’s great artwork “The School of Athens” you can see Plato pointing up and discussing something with Aristotle, who is standing next to him. It is because in his philosophy the changing world is just a shadow of a higher, truer reality that is permanent and constant. Moreover, it means that it includes things like goodness and beauty. For Plato, it is the ultimate reality of all truth, justice, wisdom and beauty. His companion, Aristotle holds his hand down. This shows that in his philosophy, the only reality is the reality that we can see and experience by sight and touch. Aristotle’s the most important book “Ethics” that he holds in this picture, emphasizes the justice, relationships, friendship and government of the human world. By this the author wants to say that we need to study it, as it can help us in our life. The only thing I would like to point out is that the author of the picture, Raphael, included his self-portrait, standing next to Ptolemy. The most fascinating fact about this frescoe is that the author is the only figure in this picture looking right to us.
“The School of Athens” is purposefully situated on the opposite wall of the library from the Disputa. These two works show direct contrast as the former represents the greatness of the pre-Christian world and the latter represents Christian theology. In both these works the Raphael clearly determine the difference between philosophy and theology using different formal elements of art such as color. For example, in his work of “The School of Athens3”, Raphael uses cool blues and whites in order to represent logic and rational thinking. However, his work Disputa was painted with warm golden tones to show the spiritual and theological values. By the differences in subject matter, artistic form and physical location he emphasizes the harmony and oppositions between theology, poetry, philosophy and law. Furthermore, from the placement of the painting “The School of Athens” on the east wall of the room we can understand how wisdom and classical philosophy led to the development of Christian thought and philosophy. By this we can easily understand, identify and explain the story behind the School of Athens by Raphael. The author used the variety of techniques to paint the images of people in order to convey his message through his painting, and inspire us by his great work. In addition, he wanted to highlight some definite characters and to attract the attention of the viewer.
The “School of Athens” is set within Roman architectural elements. The fresco was painted to accurately and with great meaning. In my opinion, the moral of the painting is utopian, because it fails to resolve the political and intellectual problems that left to the viewers by Greek philosophy. In addition, we can see that Raphael takes Greek classical models as inspiration in both for artistic and philosophical purposes. By this he wanted to emphasize the importance of wisdom and different forms of knowledge. Moreover, these two frescoes describe the transition to Christianity and the significant role that Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Plato still played in Christian theology. From this we can learn that Raphael wanted to convey the great importance of knowledge and their attitude to the knowledge and art. We understand that at that time people highly valued the art so that they even decorated their walls, ceilings and other parts of their house with great paintings of the great artists of that time. These paintings were designed as a teaching tool about the human nature and knowledge. Raphael worked hard in order to work out the relationship between the illustrated figures and develop the individuality of their gestures and poses. He wanted the painting to be as lively and as real as possible, and he wanted to create an activated debate. The School of Athens evidently embodies this vision, has much to teach students in our own schools today. The School of Athens by Raphael has been admired nearly five hundred years. It was restored by Prof. Arnold Nesselrath on April 22, 1996.
Reference
- Crane, G. 1998. Thucydides and the Ancient Simplicity: The Limits of Political Realism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Gardner Hale, The Technique of Fresco Painting, New York, Dover,1966 (Dover reprint of: Gardner Hale, Fresco Painting, William EdwinRudge, New York, 1933).
- Hall, M.B. (ed.) 1997. Raphael’s School of Athens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Hall, M.B. (ed.) 2005. The Cambridge companion to Raphael. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Harloe, K. and Morley, N. (eds.) 2012. Thucydides and the Modern World: Reception, Reinterpretation and Influence from the Renaissance to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Joost-Gaugier, C.L. 2002. Raphael’s Stanza della Segnatura: Meaning and Invention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Nesselrath, A.1997. Raphael’s School of Athens. Vatican City State.
- Rowland, I.D. 1997. ‘The intellectual background of the School of Athens: Tracking divine wisdom in the Rome of Julius II’, in Hall (ed.) 1997.
- Rowland, I.D. 2005. The Vatican stanze, in Hall (ed.) 2005:95-119.
