School of Athens. The School of Athens is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael.
It was painted between 1509 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate the rooms 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, representing Philosophy, was probably the third painting to be finished there, after La Disputa on the opposite wall, and the Parnassus.
The picture has long been seen as Raphael's masterpiece and the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the Renaissance. The painting is notable for its accurate perspective projection.
The School of Athens is one of a group of four main frescoes on the walls of the Stanza that depict distinct branches of knowledge. Each theme is identified above by a separate tondo containing a majestic female figure seated in the clouds, with putti bearing the phrases: Seek Knowledge of Causes, Divine Inspiration, Knowledge of Things Divine, To Each What Is Due.
Accordingly, the figures on the walls below exemplify Philosophy, Poetry, Theology, and Law. The traditional title is not Raphael's. The subject of the School is actually Philosophy, or at least ancient Greek philosophy, and its overhead tondo-label, Causarum Cognitio, tells us what kind, as it appears to echo Aristotle's emphasis on wisdom as knowing why,
It was painted between 1509 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate the rooms 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, representing Philosophy, was probably the third painting to be finished there, after La Disputa on the opposite wall, and the Parnassus.
The picture has long been seen as Raphael's masterpiece and the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the Renaissance. The painting is notable for its accurate perspective projection.
The School of Athens is one of a group of four main frescoes on the walls of the Stanza that depict distinct branches of knowledge. Each theme is identified above by a separate tondo containing a majestic female figure seated in the clouds, with putti bearing the phrases: Seek Knowledge of Causes, Divine Inspiration, Knowledge of Things Divine, To Each What Is Due.
Accordingly, the figures on the walls below exemplify Philosophy, Poetry, Theology, and Law. The traditional title is not Raphael's. The subject of the School is actually Philosophy, or at least ancient Greek philosophy, and its overhead tondo-label, Causarum Cognitio, tells us what kind, as it appears to echo Aristotle's emphasis on wisdom as knowing why,
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