The School of Athens

The School of Athens

Raphael, 1509–1510; Fresco, 500 × 770 cm; Vatican City, Apostolic Palace

The School of Athens is widely regarded as Raphael’s masterpiece. This piece was painted between 1510 and 1511 for the room currently known as the Stanze di Raffaello in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. Raphael was commissioned to paint four frescos on the walls of this room; The School of Athens was the second painted completed in this room.

The most famous philosophers of ancient times move within an imposing Renaissance architecture. In the center of this fresco, the audience will see Plato and Aristotle at the architecture’s central vanishing point. Both figures hold modern, bound copies of their books in their left hands, while gesturing with their right. Plato is the figure on the left holding his book, Timaeus, while he is pointing up. Plato is pointing up to show his belief that answers must be found by looking into his theory of the Forms (which is symbolized by gesturing to the heavens). Plato’s Form Theory states that the material world as it seems to us is not the real world; instead, what we see are actually symbols of the real world. Plato is shown as an old, grey, wise-looking, and bare foot old man. In fact, this image of Plato is actually a representation of Leonardo daVinci. Leonardo was a huge inspiration to Raphael; as a result, Raphael placed his portrait as one of the most important philosophers of all time. The image to the right of Plato (or DaVinci) is actually that of Aristotle. Aristotle is holding his book, the Nicomachean Ethics, while pointing to the ground. Aristotle’s gesture to the earth represents his belief in knowledge through empirical observation and experience

If you look to the lower left of Plato and Aristotle, you will find Heracleitus, a pessimist philosopher who is leaning against a block of marble. The image of Heracleitus is actually a portrait of Michelangelo. When Raphael was working on these four frescos in the Apostolic palace, Michelangelo was working on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Even though everyone knew that Michelangelo was painting the ceiling, no one, other than his assistants, were allowed to see what the ceiling looked like. One night, Raphael snuck down to see the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. When he saw the ceiling, it’s believed that he was so amazed by what he had seen that he immediately came upstairs and placed Michelangelo’s image in his painting.

This painting is considered very controversial because it’s very hard to identify the figures shown in the painting. While some images, such as those of Plato and Aristotle are easily identifiable because their busts are famous, some other philosophers have no previous visual representations of them at all. Most philosophers are easily identified because Raphael has placed some sort of clue or symbol around the individual. For example, Euclid is shown using a compass to illustrate a principle of geometry. This symbolism clearly illustrates who this philosopher is. Other philosophers include: Pythagoras is shown in the foreground intent on explaining the diatesseron. Diogenes is lying on the stairs with a dish, Zoroaster holding the heavenly sphere and Ptolemy holding the earthly sphere.

Two more figures of interest in the painting are the only two figures in the painting who are actually looking at the audience: there is a man who is wearing a black hat on the very far right and there is a woman wearing all white on the left. The image on the far right is actually an image of Raphael himself. If you have ever seen his self-portrait it looks exactly the same. The woman on the left is supposed to be Hypatia, who is the first notable woman in mathematics. However, just like Plato, Hypatia has an alter-ego. She is also believed to be a woman by the name of Margherita Luti who was Raphael’s mistress. It is believed that his death at the age of 37 was caused by an intense night with Luti. After this evening, he had a fever and did not tell the doctors the reason why he had the fever. As a result, he was given the wrong cure and died. At his request, he was buried in the Pantheon.

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