The School of Athens

The School of Athens (Italian: Scuola di Atene) is a fresco

The School of Athens
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 (Theology) on the opposite wall,
and the Parnassus (Literature).[1] The painting is notable
for its accurate perspective projection,[2] which Raphael
learned from Leonardo da Vinci (who is the central figure
of this painting, representing Plato). The rebirth of Ancient
Greek Philosophy and culture in Europe (along with Artist Raphael
Raphael's work) were inspired by Leonardo's individual
Year 1509–1511
pursuits in theatre, engineering, optics, geometry,
physiology, anatomy, history, architecture and art. This Type Fresco
work has long been seen as "Raphael's masterpiece and Dimensions 500 cm × 770 cm (200 in
the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the × 300 in)
Renaissance".[3] Location Apostolic Palace, Vatican City

Contents
Program, subject, figure identifications and
interpretations
Figures
Central figures (14 and 15)
Setting
Drawings and cartoon
Copies
Subject The Stanza della Segnatura

Gallery
See also
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
Further reading
External links
Program, subject, figure identifications and interpretations
The School of Athens is one of a group of four main frescoes on the walls of the Stanza (those on either side
centrally interrupted by windows) 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" (Disputa), "To Each
What Is Due." Accordingly, the figures on the walls below exemplify philosophy, poetry (including music),
theology, and law.[4] The traditional title is not Raphael's. The subject of the painting 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, hence knowing the causes, in Metaphysics
Book I and Physics Book II. Indeed, Plato and Aristotle appear to be the central figures in the scene. However,
many of the philosophers depicted sought knowledge of first causes. Many lived before Plato and Aristotle,
and hardly a third were Athenians. The architecture contains Roman elements, but the general semi-circular
setting having Plato and Aristotle at its centre might be alluding to Pythagoras' monad.

Commentators have suggested that nearly every great ancient Greek

philosopher can be found in the painting, but determining which are
depicted is speculative, since Raphael made no designations outside
possible likenesses, and no contemporary documents explain the
painting. Compounding the problem, Raphael had to invent a system
of iconography to allude to various figures for whom there were no
traditional visual types. For example, while the Socrates figure is
immediately recognizable from Classical busts, one of the figures
alleged to be Epicurus is far removed from his standard depiction.

Aspects of the fresco other than the identities of the figures have also
been variously interpreted, but few such interpretations are
unanimously accepted among scholars. That the rhetorical gestures of
Plato and Aristotle are kinds of pointing (to the heavens, and down to
earth) is popularly accepted as likely. However, Plato's Timaeus –
which is the book Raphael places in his hand – was a sophisticated Bramante as Euclid
treatment of space, time, and change, including the Earth, which
guided mathematical sciences for over a millennium. Aristotle, with
his four-elements theory, held that all change on Earth was owing to
motions of the heavens. In the painting Aristotle carries his Ethics,
which he denied could be reduced to a mathematical science. It is not
certain how much the young Raphael knew of ancient philosophy,
what guidance he might have had from people such as Bramante and
whether a detailed program was dictated by his sponsor, Pope Julius
II.
Zoroaster, Ptolemy, Raphael as
Nevertheless, the fresco has even recently been interpreted as an Apelles and Perugino, Il Sodoma or
exhortation to philosophy and, in a deeper way, as a visual Timoteo Viti as Protogenes
representation of the role of Love in elevating people toward upper
knowledge, largely in consonance with contemporary theories of
Marsilio Ficino and other neo-Platonic thinkers linked to Raphael.[5]

Finally, according to Giorgio Vasari, the scene includes Raphael himself, the Duke of Mantua, Zoroaster and
some Evangelists.[6]
However, to Heinrich Wölfflin, "it is quite wrong to attempt interpretations of the School of Athens as an
esoteric treatise ... The all-important thing was the artistic motive which expressed a physical or spiritual state,
and the name of the person was a matter of indifference" in Raphael's time.[7] Raphael's artistry then
orchestrates a beautiful space, continuous with that of viewers in the Stanza, in which a great variety of human
figures, each one expressing "mental states by physical actions," interact, in a "polyphony" unlike anything in
earlier art, in the ongoing dialogue of Philosophy.[8]

An interpretation of the fresco relating to hidden symmetries of the figures and the star constructed by
Bramante was given by Guerino Mazzola and collaborators.[9] The main basis are two mirrored triangles on
the drawing from Bramante (Euclid), which correspond to the feet positions of certain figures.[10]

Figures

The identities of some of the philosophers in the picture, such as Plato and Aristotle, are certain. Beyond that,
identifications of Raphael's figures have always been hypothetical. To complicate matters, beginning from
Vasari's efforts, some have received multiple identifications, not only as ancients but also as figures
contemporary with Raphael. Vasari mentions portraits of the young Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua,
leaning over Bramante with his hands raised near the bottom right, and Raphael himself.[11]

Central figures (14 and 15)

In the center of the fresco, at its architecture's central vanishing point,

are the two undisputed main subjects: Plato on the left and Aristotle,
his student, on the right. Both figures hold modern (of the time),
bound copies of their books in their left hands, while gesturing with
their right. Plato holds Timaeus and Aristotle holds his Nicomachean
Ethics. Plato is depicted as old, grey, and bare-foot. By contrast,
Aristotle, slightly ahead of him, is in mature manhood, wearing
sandals and gold-trimmed robes, and the youth about them seem to
look his way. In addition, these two central figures gesture along
different dimensions: Plato vertically, upward along the picture-plane,
into the vault above; Aristotle on the horizontal plane at right-angles
to the picture-plane (hence in strong foreshortening), initiating a flow
of space toward viewers.

It is popularly thought that their gestures indicate central aspects of

their philosophies, for Plato, his Theory of Forms, and for Aristotle, An elder Plato walks alongside a
an emphasis on concrete particulars. Many interpret the painting to younger Aristotle
show a divergence of the two philosophical schools. Plato argues a
sense of timelessness whilst Aristotle looks into the physicality of life
and the present realm.

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[3] (see Christianity and Paganism and Christian
philosophy). The architecture of the building was inspired by the work of Bramante, who, according to Vasari,
helped Raphael with the architecture in the picture.[3] The resulting architecture was similar to the then new St.
Peter's Basilica.[3]
There are two sculptures in the background. The one on the left is the
god Apollo, god of light, archery and music, holding a lyre.[3] The
sculpture on the right is Athena, goddess of wisdom, in her Roman
guise as Minerva.[3]

The main arch, above the characters, shows a meander (also known
as a Greek fret or Greek key design), a design using continuous lines
that repeat in a "series of rectangular bends" which originated on
pottery of the Greek Geometric period and then become widely used
in ancient Greek architectural friezes.[12]

Drawings and cartoon

A number of drawings made by Raphael as studies for the School of
Athens are extant.[13] A study for the Diogenes is in the Städel in Detail of the architecture
Frankfurt[14] while a study for the group around Pythagoras, in the
lower left of the painting, is preserved in the Albertina Museum in
Vienna.[15] Several drawings, showing the two men talking while walking up the steps on the right and the
Medusa on Athena's shield,[16][a] the statue of Athena (Minerva) and three other statues,[18] a study for the
combat scene in the relief below Apollo[19] and "Euclid" teaching his pupils[20] are in the Ashmolean
Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford.

The cartoon for the painting is in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan.[21] Missing from it is the architectural
background, the figures of Heraclitus, Raphael, and Protogenes. The group of the philosophers in the left
foreground strongly recall figures from Leonardo's Adoration of the Magi.[22] Additionally, there are some
engravings of the scene's sculptures by Marcantonio Raimondi; they may have been based on lost drawings by
Raphael, as they do not match the fresco exactly.[23]

Copies
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London 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.[24]

Modern reproductions of the fresco abound. For example, a full-size one can be seen in the auditorium of Old
Cabell Hall at the University of Virginia. Produced in 1902 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.[25]

Other reproductions include: in Königsberg Cathedral, Kaliningrad by Neide,[26] in the University of North
Carolina at Asheville's Highsmith University Student Union, and a recent one in the seminar room at Baylor
University's Brooks College. A copy of Raphael's School of Athens was painted on the wall of the ceremonial
stairwell that leads to the famous, main-floor reading room of the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève in Paris.

The two figures to the left of Plotinus were used as part of the cover art of both Use Your Illusion I and II
albums of Guns N' Roses.

Subject
A similar subject is known as Plato's Academy mosaic, and perhaps
emerged in form of statues at the Serapeum of Alexandria and
Memphis Saqqara, both of them in what is now Egypt. Jean-François
Mimaut (1774 - 1837), French consul-general in Alexandria,
mentioned in the 19th century nine statues at Serapeum of Alexandria
holding rolls. Eleven statues were found at Saqqara. A review of "Les
Statues Ptolémaïques du Sarapieion de Memphis" noted they were
probably sculpted in the 3rd century with limestone and stucco, some
standing and others sitting. Rowe and Rees 1956 suggested that both
scenes in the Serapeum of Alexandria and Saqqara share a similar
subject, such as with Plato's Academy mosaic, with Saqqara figures
attributed to: "(1) Pindare, (2) Démétrios de Phalère, (3) x (?), (4)
Orphée (?) aux oiseaux,[27] (5) Hésiode, (6) Homère, (7) x (?), (8)
Plato's Academy mosaic from
Protagoras, (9) Thalès, (10) Héraclite, (11) Platon, (12) Aristote
Pompeii
(?)."[28][29] However, there have been other suggestions (see for
instance Mattusch, 2008). A common identification seems to be Plato
as a central figure and Thales.[30] According to Paolo Zamboni professor of Vascular Surgery University of
Ferrara who carried out an Iconodiagnostic on the School of Athens, Raphael's Michelangelo, in the role of
Heraclitus, is affected by legs and knees varicose veins.[31]

Gallery
Leonardo da Vinci as Plato Aristotle

Anaximander Pythagoras and Archimedes

Archimedes displaying his Aeschines and Socrates

Principle.
Michelangelo as Heraclitus Diogenes

Alcibiades or Alexander the Possibly Zeno of Citium

Great and Antisthenes or
Xenophon
Parmenides Averroes and Pythagoras

Possibly Epicurus or
Democritus

See also
The Last Supper (Leonardo)

References

Notes
a. Possibly derived from a figure in Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari.[17]

Citations
1. Jones and Penny, p. 74: "The execution of the School of Athens ... probably followed that of the
Parnassus."
2. Georg Rainer Hofmann (1990). "Who invented ray tracing?". The Visual Computer. 6 (3): 120–
124. doi:10.1007/BF01911003 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01911003). S2CID 26348610 (htt
ps://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:26348610)..
 3. History of Art: The Western Tradition (https://books.google.com/books?id=MMYHuvhWBH4C)
by Horst Woldemar Janson, Anthony F. Janson (2004).
4. See Giorgio Vasari, "Raphael of Urbino", in Lives of the Artists, vol. I: "In each of the four circles
he made an allegorical figure to point the significance of the scene beneath, towards which it
turns. For the first, where he had painted philosophy, astrology, geometry and poetry agreeing
with theology, is a woman representing knowledge, seated in a chair supported on either side
by a goddess Cybele, with the numerous breasts ascribed by the ancients to Diana
Polymastes. Her garment is of four colours, representing the four elements, her head being the
colour of fire, her bust that of air, her thighs that of earth, and her legs that of water." For further
clarification, and introduction to more subtle interpretations, see E. H. Gombrich, "Raphael’s
Stanza della Segnatura and the Nature of Its Symbolism", in Symbolic Images: Studies in the
Art of the Renaissance (London: Phaidon, 1975).
5. M. Smolizza, ‘’Rafael y el Amor. La Escuela de Atenas como protréptico a la filosofia’’, in ‘Idea
y Sentimiento. Itinerarios por el dibujo de Rafael a Cézanne’, Barcelona, 2007, pp. 29–77. [A
review of the main interpretations proposed in the last two centuries.]
6. According to Vasari, "Raphael received a hearty welcome from Pope Julius, and in the
chamber of the Segnatura he painted the theologians reconciling Philosophy and Astrology
with Theology, including portraits of all the wise men of the world in dispute."
7. Wōlfflin, p. 88.
8. Wōlfflin, pp. 94ff.
9. Guerino Mazzola; et al. (1986). Rasterbild - Bildraster (https://www.springer.com/de/book/97835
40172673). Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-540-17267-3.
10. This can be seen here (https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/bbm%3A978-3-642-71700-0%2F1.
pdf).
11. Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists, v. I, sel. & transl. by George Bull (London: Penguin, 1965), p.
292.
12. Lyttleton, Margaret. "Meander." Grove Art Online (http://www.oxfordartonline.com/public/book/o
ao_gao). Oxford University Press, 2012. Accessed 5 August 2012.
13. Luitpold Dussler: Raphael. A Critical Catalogue (London and New York: Phaidon 1971), p. 74
14. Zeichnungen – 16. Jahrhundert – Graphische Sammlung – Sammlung – Städel Museum (http://
www.staedelmuseum.de/sm/index.php?StoryID=241&ObjectID=355). Staedelmuseum.de
(2010-11-18). Retrieved on 2011-06-13.
15. Raffaello Santi. mit seinen Schülern (Studie für die "Schule von Athen", Stanza della
Segnatura, Vatikan) (http://gallery.albertina.at/eMuseum/code/eMuseum.asp?newaction=advse
arch&searchFlag=1&searchpage=6&operatorpeople=Bitte+w%C3%A4hlen+Sie...&people=&o
peratorTitle=Bitte+w%C3%A4hlen+Sie...&Title=&operatorItemDate=Bitte+w%C3%A4hlen+Si
e...&datebegin=&dateend=&operatorMedium=Bitte+w%C3%A4hlen+Sie...&Medium=&operator
Number=ist&Number=4883&imgquicksearch.x=9&imgquicksearch.y=8Pythagoras) (trans.:
Pythagoras and his students (Study for the 'School of Athens', Stanza della Signatura, the
Vatican) (inventory number 4883)). Albertina Museum. Vienna, Austria, 2008. Retrieved on
2011-06-13.
16. "Two Men conversing on a Flight of Steps, and a Head shouting" (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0110628192743/http://www.ashmolean.museum/ash/objects/objectviews/WA1846.191.html).
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. University of Oxford. 2011. Archived from the
original (http://www.ashmolean.museum/ash/objects/objectviews/WA1846.191.html) on 28
June 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
17. Salmi, Mario; Becherucci, Luisa; Marabottini, Alessandro; Tempesti, Anna Forlani; Marchini,
Giuseppe; Becatti, Giovanni; Castagnoli, Ferdinando; Golzio, Vincenzo (1969). The Complete
Work of Raphael. New York: Reynal and Co., William Morrow and Company. p. 378.
18. "Studies for a Figure of Minerva and Other Statues" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110628192
823/http://www.ashmolean.museum/ash/objects/objectviews/WA1846.192.html). Ashmolean
Museum of Art and Archaeology. University of Oxford. 2011. Archived from the original (http://w
ww.ashmolean.museum/ash/objects/objectviews/WA1846.192.html) on 28 June 2011.
Retrieved 13 June 2011.
19. "Recto: Combat of nude men" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110628192851/http://www.ashmo
lean.museum/ash/objects/objectviews/WA1846.193.html). Ashmolean Museum of Art and
Archaeology. University of Oxford. 2011. Archived from the original (http://www.ashmolean.mus
eum/ash/objects/objectviews/WA1846.193.html) on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
20. Raphael (1482-1520).Euclid instructing his Pupils (http://www.ashmolean.museum/ash/objects/
objectviews/WA1846.194.htmlRecto:). Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University
of Oxford, 2011. Retrieved on 2011-06-13.
21. School of Athens Cartoon (http://learn.columbia.edu/raphael/images/school_of_athens/raphael
_athens_cartoon_lg.jpg)
22. Salmi, Mario; Becherucci, Luisa; Marabottini, Alessandro; Tempesti, Anna Forlani; Marchini,
Giuseppe; Becatti, Giovanni; Castagnoli, Ferdinando; Golzio, Vincenzo (1969). The Complete
Work of Raphael. New York: Reynal and Co., William Morrow and Company. p. 379.
23. Salmi, Mario; Becherucci, Luisa; Marabottini, Alessandro; Tempesti, Anna Forlani; Marchini,
Giuseppe; Becatti, Giovanni; Castagnoli, Ferdinando; Golzio, Vincenzo (1969). The Complete
Work of Raphael. New York: Reynal and Co., William Morrow and Company. pp. 377, 422.
24. V&A Museum: Copy of Raphael's School of Athens in the Vatican (https://collections.vam.ac.u
k/item/O89799/the-school-of-athens-after-oil-painting-mengs-anton-raphael/).
collections.vam.ac.uk (2009-08-25). Retrieved on 2016-03-24.
25. Information on Old Cabell Hall (http://www.virginia.edu/music/cabell.html) from University of
Virginia
26. Northern Germany: As Far as the Bavarian and Austrian Frontiers (https://archive.org/details/no
rtherngermany03firgoog/page/n370), Baedeker, 1890, p. 247.
27. French for to birds.
28. Alan Rowe; B. R. Rees (1956). "A Contribution To The Archaeology of The Western Desert: IV
- The Great Serapeum Of Alexandria" (https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?
publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:1m1914&datastreamId=POST-PEER-REVIEW-PUBLISHERS-
DOCUMENT.PDF) (PDF). Manchester.
29. Ph. Lauer; Ch. Picard (1957). "Reviewed Work: Les Statues Ptolémaïques du Sarapieion de
Memphis". Archaeological Institute of America. 61 (2): 211–215. doi:10.2307/500375 (https://do
i.org/10.2307%2F500375). JSTOR 500375 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/500375).
30. Katherine Joplin (2011). "Plato's Circle in the Mosaic of Pompeii" (http://www.electrummagazin
e.com/2011/11/platos-circle-in-the-mosaic-of-pompeii). Electrum Magazine.
31. "Diagnosi su tela: le grandi malattie dipinte dei pittori del passato" (https://www.corriere.it/salut
e/20_giugno_27/diagnosi-tela-malattie-dipinte-grandi-pittori-passato-2802f5ce-ac00-11ea-822f
-b27e74f859d1_preview.shtml?reason=unauthorized&cat=1&cid=DgYqMdWZ&pids=FR&credi
ts=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.corriere.it%2Fsalute%2F20_giugno_27%2Fdiagnosi-tela-
malattie-dipinte-grandi-pittori-passato-2802f5ce-ac00-11ea-822f-b27e74f859d1.shtml).

Sources
Roger Jones and Nicholas Penny, Raphael, Yale, 1983, ISBN 0300030614.
Heinrich Wölfflin, Classic Art: An Introduction to the Italian Renaissance (London: Phaidon, 2d
edn. 1953).

Further reading
 Kleiner, Fred S. (2009). Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective, Volume II (ht
tps://books.google.com/books?id=UK_jTggtYl8C&pg=PT130). Cengage Learning. pp. 363–
365. ISBN 0-495-57364-7.
Gertrude Garrigues, "Raphael's 'School of Athens'" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/25667781),
The Journal of Speculative Philosophy Vol. 13, No. 4 (October, 1879), pp. 406–420.

External links
The School of Athens (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00j7txt) on In Our Time at the BBC
The School of Athens (http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/r/raphael/4stanze/1segnatu/1/) at
the Web Gallery of Art
The School of Athens (https://web.archive.org/web/20061206062213/http://www.clio.unina.it/~a
lfredo/index.php?mod=05_Interessi%2FLa_Scuola_di_Atene) (interactive map)
Cartoon of The School of Athens (http://www.learn.columbia.edu/raphael/htm/raphael_athens_
cartoon.htm)
The School of Athens reproduction at UNC Asheville (https://web.archive.org/web/2007092909
1018/http://www.unca.edu/news/releases/2007/athens.html)
BBC Radio 4 discussion about the significance of this picture in the programme In Our Time
with Melvyn Bragg. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20090326.shtml)
3 Cool Things You Might Not Know About Raphael’s School of Athens (https://web.archive.org/
web/20160303233837/http://artsnap.org/3-cool-things-you-might-not-know-about-raphaels-sch
ool-of-athens/)

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