The Raphael's Rooms

● the four Raphael's Rooms famous for their frescoes → by Raphael and his workshop
● together with Michelangelo's ceiling frescoes in the Sistine Chapel → the grand fresco sequences
that mark the High Renaissance in Rome
● originally intended as a suite of apartments for Pope Julius II who commissioned Raphael
(then annexed to the Vatican Museums)

1) Hall of Constantine:
- begun after Pope Julius II and Raphael had died
- dedicated to the victory of Christianity over paganism (Constantine vs Maxentius)
- painted by Giulio Romano, Gianfrancesco Penni and Rafaellino del Colle
- Vision of the Cross, Battle of Milvian Bridge (again Constantine vs Maxentius), Baptism of
Constantine
- Donation of Constantine → worth of note because here the church temporal power starts
(the Lateran Palace already mentioned before)

2) Room of Heliodorus:
- theme of this private chamber was the heavenly protection granted by Christ to the Church
- The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple (from which the room takes its name), The
Deliverance of Saint Peter, The Mass at Bolsena
- In all of these frescoes, Raphael fatteringly includes Pope Julius II, as participant or observer
- The Meeting of Pope Leo I and Attila → interestingly, Raphael frst depicted Leo I with the
face of Julius II but after Julius' death, he changed it to resemble the new pope Leo X

3) Room of the Signatura:

- frst to be decorated by Raphael's frescoes representing the harmony between Christian
teachings and Greek Philosophy → it was the Pope's library
- theme of wisdom is appropriate as this room was the council chamber for the Apostolic
Signatura, where most of the important papal documents were signed and sealed
- Disputation of the Holy Sacraments, The Parnassus, The Holy Virtues

- The School of Athens:

- original name of the fresco actually is Causarum Cognitio (Knowledge
of Causes) but it is called School of Athens from a 17th century guidebook
- painted by the 27 year old Raphael (Rafaello) anzio for the library of Pope Julius II
- we can consider it as a visualization of knowledge (Raphael's)
- represents the truth acquired through reason
- the most famous philosophers of ancient times move within an imposing Renaissance
architecture inspired by Bramante's project for the renewal of the early St Peter's
- the theologians reconciling Philosophy and Astrology with Theology, in which are
portraits of all the sages of the world shown disputing among themselves in various
ways:
- in the centre → - Plato (whose face is of Leonardo da Vinci) holds his book Timaeus and
his gestures upward to the aerialist realm of his eternal forms (Iperuranio)
- Aristotle with a copy of his Nichomachean Ethics and he indicates with
his gesture the concreteness, of his contributions to philosophy
- does his brown and blue colored clothes represent the two elements water
and earth (probably to show that his philosophy is grounded, material),
whereas Plato's two colors represent fre and airr
- Pythagoras is shown in the foreground intent on explaining the Diatesseron
- Diogenes → - is lying on the stairs deep in thought with is “beggar” cup
- is the cynic philosopher who likes to be alone and lived in a barrel
- he spent his nights wandering from house to house with a lantern, knocking
on people's doors to fnd out if there was "an honest human inside" → with
his audacious intrusion in peoples' private afairs, he meant to show them
that no honest person could be found anywhere in his city
- when Alexander the Great went to meet him, he found him sitting in front of
his barrel, facing the sun and as a great admirer of Diogenes, Alexander then
asked him if there is anything he could do for him (which today might be
equivalent to being asked whether you would like to win the lottery)
Diogenes thought for a while, and then asked politely if the Great King
could simply... step aside, because by standing over him with his horse, he
was hiding the sun from his face! That impressed Alexander, that he
exclaimed if he were not Alexander, he would have liked to be Diogenes!
- Heracleitus, the pessimist philosopher (portrait of Michelangelo), is leaning against a block
of marble, writing on a sheet of paper
- on the right see → - Euclid, who is teaching geometry to his pupils (with Bramante's face
because he designed the model of St. Peter)
- Zoroaster holding the heavenly sphere
- Ptolemy holding the earthly sphere
- Socrates → standing, dressed in brown, discussing about the “Socratic Problem” (might be)
- The School of Athens represents the great personalities in The Seven Liberal Arts which is
divided in the Quadrivium (“The four roads”) → Arithmetic, Geometry, Music,
Astronomy; and the Trivium (“The three roads”) → Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric
- but where are the paintersr
- the personage on the extreme right with the black beret is a self-portrait of Raphael → most
provocative part of the all painting he gave is face to Greek painter Apelles as gazing us
questioning what we think about his masterpiece, maybe Raphael wanted to include also the
painters as creative people in the list of Liberal Artists (Sodoma the painter is next to him)
- the perspective is such that the vanishing point is between Plato and Aristotle stressing the
importance of these two philosophers
4) Room of the Fire in the Borgo:
- named for the Fire in the Borgo fresco which depicts Pope Leo IV making the sign of the
cross to extinguish a raging fre in the Borgo district of Rome near the Vatican
- The Oath of Leo III, The Coronation of Charlemagne by Leo III, and The Battle of Ostia
- Though the Fire in the Borgo was based on Raphael's mature designs it was executed by his
assistants, who painted the other three paintings without his guidance