The School of Athens

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Image:Sanzio 01.jpg
The School of Athens
Raphael, 1509–1510
Fresco, 500 × 770 cm
Vatican City, Apostolic Palace

The School of Athens or "Scuola di Atene" in Italian is one of the most famous paintings by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1510 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms that are now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The Stanza della Segnatura was the first of the rooms to be decorated, and The School of Athens the second painting to be finished, after La disputa. The picture has long been seen as "Raphael's masterpiece and the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the High Renaissance."[1]

Contents

[edit] The painting

The subject of the painting are various famous Greek philosophers. Commentators have long suggested that nearly every great Greek philosopher and scientist can be found within the painting, but figuring out who exactly is depicted in the painting is extremely difficult given the fact that Raphael did not explicitly state who the figures were supposed to represent, and there were no contemporaneous documents that explain the painting.[2] Compounding the problem, Raphael had to create a whole set of iconography to allude to the various scientists and philosophers in the painting, which had not previously existed.[3][4] Nevertheless, there is widespread agreement on who certain select figures within the painting are suppose to be.[5]

[edit] The figures

The identity of some of the philosophers in the picture, such as Plato or Aristotle, is uncontroversial. But scholars disagree on many of the other figures. According to Lahanas,[6] they are usually identified as follows:

Image:Raffaello Scuola di Atene numbered.svg
The bracketed names are the contemporary characters from whom Raphael is thought to have drawn his likenesses. 1: Zeno of Citium or Zeno of Elea? 2: Epicurus 3: Frederik II of Mantua? 4: Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius or Anaximander or Empedocles? 5: Averroes? 6: Pythagoras? 7: Alcibiades or Alexander the Great? 8: Antisthenes or Xenophon? 9: Hypatia (Francesco Maria della Rovere or Raphael's mistress Margherita.) 10: Aeschines or Xenophon? 11: Parmenides? 12: Socrates? 13: Heraclitus (Michelangelo). 14: Plato holding the Timaeus ( Leonardo da Vinci). 15: Aristotle holding the Ethics? 16: Diogenes of Sinope? 17: Plotinus? 18: Euclid or Archimedes with students ( Bramante)? 19: Strabo or Zoroaster? (Baldassare Castiglione or Pietro Bembo). 20: Ptolemy? R: Apelles (Raphael). 21: Protogenes (Il Sodoma or Perugino).[7]

[edit] Center figures (14 and 15)

Image:Sanzio 01 Plato Aristotle.jpg

In the center of the painting, in front of the painting's vanishing point, are the two undisputed main subjects, Plato on the left and his student Aristotle on the right. Both figures are holding copies of their own books in their left hands. Plato is holding Timaeus and Aristotle is holding his Nicomachean Ethics. In addition, the two figures are gesturing in different directions. Plato has his right arm pointing to the heavens, which is a reference to Plato's ideas of the The Forms. In contrast, Aristotle gestures to the earth, representing his belief in knowledge through empirical observation and experience.

Supposedly, Plato was designed to resemble Leonardo da Vinci.

[edit] The setting

The building is in the shape of a Greek Cross, which some have suggested was intended to show a harmony between pagan philosophy and Christian theology.[8] The architecture of the building was inspired by the work of Bramante, who according to Vasari helped Raphael with the architecture in the picture.[9] Some have suggested that the building itself was intended to be an advance view of St. Peter's Basilica.[10] There are two sculptures in the background. The one on the left is the god Apollo holding a lyre.[11] Apollo is the archer-god of medicine and healing, light, truth, archery, and music. The sculpture on the right is Athena, in her Roman guise as Minerva.[12] Athena was the goddess of wisdom.

[edit] Reproductions

The Victoria and Albert Museum has a rectangular version over 4 metres by 8 metres in size, painted on canvas, dated 1755 by Anton Raphael Mengs on display in the eastern Cast Court.[13]

A reproduction of the fresco can be seen in the auditorium of Old Cabell Hall at the University of Virginia. Produced in 1900 by George W. Breck to replace an older reproduction that was destroyed in a fire in 1895, it is four inches off scale from the original, because the Vatican would not allow identical reproductions of its art works. [14]

Another reproduction, by Neide, is in the Königsberg Cathedral, Kaliningrad.[15]

More recently the image was used by the band Guns N' Roses for their 1991 albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. Extracts of the image, chiefly the two figures to the left of Plotinus (figure 17), were extracted by New York artist Mark Kostabi for the cover art.

Another reproduction can be found in the University of North Carolina at Asheville's Highsmith University Student Union.

One of the newest reproductions of this painting can be found in the seminar room at Baylor University's Brooks College.

[edit] References

  1. ^ History of Art: The Western Tradition By Horst Woldemar Janson, Anthony F. Janson
  2. ^ Daniel Orth Bell, New identifications in Raphael's 'School of Athens.' Art Bulletin, Dec. 1995.
  3. ^ Daniel Orth Bell, New identifications in Raphael's 'School of Athens.' Art Bulletin, Dec. 1995.
  4. ^ History of Art: The Western Tradition By Horst Woldemar Janson, Anthony F. Janson
  5. ^ Daniel Orth Bell, New identifications in Raphael's 'School of Athens.' Art Bulletin, Dec. 1995.
  6. ^ The School of Athens, "Who is Who?" by Michael Lahanas
  7. ^ The interpretation of this figure as Sodoma is probably in error as Sodoma was 33 at the time of painting, while Raphael's teacher, Perugino was a renowned painter and aged about 60 at the time of this painting, consistent with the image.
  8. ^ History of Art: The Western Tradition By Horst Woldemar Janson, Anthony F. Janson
  9. ^ History of Art: The Western Tradition By Horst Woldemar Janson, Anthony F. Janson
  10. ^ History of Art: The Western Tradition By Horst Woldemar Janson, Anthony F. Janson
  11. ^ History of Art: The Western Tradition By Horst Woldemar Janson, Anthony F. Janson
  12. ^ History of Art: The Western Tradition By Horst Woldemar Janson, Anthony F. Janson
  13. ^ V&A Museum: Copy of Raphael's School of Athens in the Vatican
  14. ^ Information on Old Cabell Hall from University of Virginia
  15. ^ Northern Germany: As Far as the Bavarian and Austrian Frontiers, Baedeker, 1890, p. 247.

[edit] External links

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The School of Athens

[edit] Gallery

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Zeno of Citium or Zeno of Elea

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Epicurus

Averroes closeup.jpg

Averroes and Pythagoras

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Pythagoras

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Alcibiades or Alexander the Great and Antisthenes or Xenophon

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Francesco Maria I della Rovere or Raphael's mistress as Hypatia of Alexandria and Parmenides

Sanzio 01 Parmenides.jpg

Parmenides

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Aeschines and Socrates

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Michelangelo as Heraclitus

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Leonardo da Vinci as Plato

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Aristotle

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Diogenes

Sanzio 01 Euclid.jpg

Bramante as Euclid or Archimedes

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Strabo or Zoroaster, Ptolemy, Raphael as Apelles and Il Sodoma as Protogenes

Raphael School of Athens GNR.jpg
v • d • e
Raphael
Early WorksResurrection of Christ (The Kinnaird Resurrection) • Angel (fragment of the Baronci Altarpiece) • Holy Family with Madonna of the Veil • St. Sebastian • Oddi altar works • Madonna Solly (Madonna with the Child) • Mond Crucifixion (Città di Castello Altarpiece) • Three Graces • St. Michael • Portrait of a Man • Connestabile Madonna • Madonna and Child • The Marriage of the Virgin • Vision of a Knight • St. George • Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints (Colonna Altarpiece) • Portrait of PeruginoImage:Sanzio 00.jpg
Florentine periodPortrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga • Self-portrait • Madonna of the Grand Duke • The Ansidei Madonna • Young Man with an Apple • Christ Blessing • Madonna Terranova • The Madonna of the Goldfinch • Madonna del Prato (The Madonna of the Meadow) • St. George and the Dragon • La Donna Gravida • Portrait of Agnolo Doni • Portrait of Maddalena Doni • Madonna of the Pinks • Young Woman with Unicorn  • Madonna with Beardless St. Joseph • Saint Catherine of Alexandria • Canigiani Holy Family • La belle jardinière • The Deposition of Christ (The Entombment) • The Three Theological Virtues (tryptic) • Portrait of a Young Woman • The Tempi Madonna (Madonna with the Child) • La Madonna de Bogota (Madonna with the Child)
Roman periodPortrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese • La disputa • The School of Athens • Madonna of Loreto • Aldobrandini Madonna • Madonna with the Blue Diadem • Portrait of a Cardinal • Alba Madonna • The Parnassus • The Cardinal Virtues • Portrait of Pope Julius II • The Prophet Isaiah • The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple • Portrait of Pope Julius II • The Madonna of Foligno • The Triumph of Galatea • Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami • Sistine Madonna • Madonna della seggiola (Madonna with the Child and Young St. John) • Madonna dell'Impannata • Madonna della tenda • The Fire in the Borgo • The Meeting of Leo the Great and Attila • Deliverance of Saint Peter • Portrait of Bindo Altoviti • The Sibyls • The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia • Portrait of Balthasar Castiglione • Woman with a Veil (La Donna Velata) • Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami • Palazzo Branconio dell'Aquila in Borgo • Portrait of Andrea Navagero and Agostino Beazzano • Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena • Double Portrait • Church of Sant'Eligio degli Orefici • Creation of the World • Transfiguration • Portrait of Pope Leo X with two Cardinals • Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary • The Holy Family of Francis I • Ezechiel’s Vision • St. Michael Vanquishing Satan  • Madonna of the Rose • Self-portrait with a Friend • Portrait of a Young Woman (La fornarina) • Visitation
ca:L'escola d'Atenes

cs:Athénská škola de:Die Schule von Athen es:La escuela de Atenas fa:مکتب آتن (نقاشی) fr:L'École d'Athènes ko:라파엘로의 방 id:Sekolah Athena it:Scuola di Atene (Raffaello) he:אסכולת אתונה ja:アテナイの学堂 jv:Sekolah Atena nl:School van Athene pl:Szkoła Ateńska pt:Escola de Atenas sq:Shkolla e Athinës vi:Trường Athens zh:雅典學院

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