The School of Athens by Raphael

Italian Renaissance Artists: A - L	Italian Renaissance Artists: M - Z	Italian Renaissance Movements/Periods	Other News in Art	Glossary of Terms
Contemporary Abstract Art	Elegant Fireplace Screens	Oil Painting Reproductions	Sculpture Reproductions	Fine Art Puzzles

Find out how and why you should buy your
oil painting reproductions from Fine Art Touch.

The School of Athens by Raphael Sanzio

The School of Athens
by Raphael Sanzio, 1509
Fresco, width at the base 770 cm
Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican

Click here to see our fine art reproductions.

The School of Athens by Raphael Sanzio is a fresco painting decorating the private library of the pope, the Stanza della Segnatura, in the Vatican palace in Rome. The School of Athens by Raphael depicts the concept of philosophy. Raphael, influrenced by the current Neoplatonism of the time, depicts classically attired figures representing famous philosophers. They inhabit a magnificent grisaille architectural wonder with a scene which is meant to take place in antiquity.

Centered in the composition and striding through a series of illustionistic arches are the philosophers Plato and Aristotle engaged in a lively dialogue on the source of wisdom or truth. Plato, Aristotle's teacher, points to the sky, arguing that wisdom comes from above, divinely inspired. Aristotle motions to the earth indicating that wisdom comes from empirical observation. Small groups of thinkers flank the central figures while others are scattered about, some sprawled on the floor. In The School of Athens by Raphael, they seem to be debating their various philosophies in the search for truth.

The architecture in The School of Athens by Raphael is reminiscent of Italian Renaissance architect Donato Bramante's plan for the new St. Peters, architecture inspired by grandiose Roman architecture. Bramante was Raphael Sanzio's cousin, so it is no surprise that Raphael pays tribute to his famous family relation. The figures exist naturally within the illusionistic structure.

Portrait of Michelangelo (det. from The School of Athens by Raphael

Seated Figure of Michelangelo
Detail from The School of Athens by Raphael

Of particular interest is the foreground figure which is a portrait of Italian Renaissance artist, Michelangelo Buonarroti, who leans on a marble block. Michelangelo controlled strict access to his unfinished work in the Sistine Chapel, but it has been suggested that Raphael Sanzio was secretly allowed to visit the wondrous paintings there contemporaneously in progress with his own. Raphael then returned to remove a section of painted fresco, and replaced it with the figure of Michelangelo lounging on his block. Michelangelo always claimed that he was not a painter, but a sculptor. It is obvious that Raphael admired Michelangelo, and The School of Athens by Raphael pays open tribute to the master Michelangelo, his greatest competitor.

Brenda Harness, Art Historian

QUOTE
OF THE
WEEK

"Practise what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know."

-Rembrandt van Rijn

Thank you for visiting
Fine Art Touch!

Please come again soon!

Welcome !

Home

◦	Sale Items

Italian Renaissance Art

◦	Most Famous Artists
◦	Periods/Movements
◦	According to Vasari
◦	Nero's Golden House
◦	Artist Listing: A - L
◦	Artist Listing: M - Z

Art Patronage

◦	Italian Renaissance Courts
◦	Este Court of Ferrara
◦	Gonzaga Court of Mantua
◦	The Rise of the Medici
◦	Lorenzo de' Medici/Early
◦	Lorenzo de' Medici/Late

Trecento (Proto-Renaissance)

◦

Giotto

Early Renaissance

◦	Fra Angelico
◦	Brunelleschi
◦	Masaccio
◦	Tribute Money
◦	Holy Trinity
◦	Ghiberti
◦	Donatello
◦	David
◦	Gattamelata
◦	Ghirlandaio
◦	Luca della Robbia
◦	Uccello
◦	Piero della Francesca
◦	Castagno
◦	Fra Filippo Lippi
◦	Pollaiuolo
◦	Mantegna
◦	Melozzo da Forli
◦	Perugino
◦	Verrocchio
◦	Botticelli
◦	Botticelli's Model, Simonetta Vespucci
◦	Cestello Annunciation

High Renaissance

◦	Leonardo
◦	Leonardo Timeline
◦	Verrocchio's Studio
◦	Annunciation to the Virgin
◦	Last Supper
◦	Mona Lisa
◦	Where Is The Real Mona Lisa Now?
◦	Da Vinci's Notebooks
◦	Vitruvian Man
◦	Portrait of Ginevra de'Benci
◦	Yarn Winder Madonna
◦	Madonna & Child w/St. Anne
◦	Great Bronze Horse
◦	Raphael
◦	School of Athens
◦	Transfiguration of Christ
◦	Miraculous Draught of Fishes
◦	Prophet Isaiah
◦	Madonna of the Chair
◦	Rivals Raphael vs Michelangelo
◦	Raphael Portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici, Renaissance Prince
◦	Michelangelo
◦	Michelangelo Timeline
◦	David by Michelangelo
◦	Last Judgment
◦	The Pieta
◦	The Medici Tombs
◦	Correggio
◦	Andrea del Sarto

Venetian Renaissance

◦	Venetian Painting Technique
◦	Jacopo Bellini
◦	Carpaccio
◦	Titian
◦	Venus of Urbino
◦	Danae & the Shower of Gold
◦	Sacred and Profane Love

Mannerism

◦	Parmigianino
◦	Bronzino
◦	Giulio Romano
◦	Cellini
◦	Saltcellar of Francis I
◦	Cellini's Saltcellar Found
◦	Tintoretto
◦	Arcimboldo

Published Articles

◦	The Face That Launched A Thousand Prints
◦	Renaissance Humanism, Embraced Then Rejected
◦	Women As Edible Art
◦	Botticelli, The Dark Side of Art
◦	For That Knee Alone
◦	Cellini's Autobiography
◦	What Nero Did For You

About Us

Press Releases

◦	Fine Art Touch Website Launched on 09-29-2006
◦	Fine Art Reprodutions Now Available - 11-26-2006