Opere di raffaello sanzio the school of architecture

Self-portrait of Raphael Enlarged detail of the "School of Athens". Who painted the "School of Athens"? It was painted between and 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 second painting to be finished there, after La Disputa Theology on the opposite wall, and the Parnassus Literature.

The picture has long been seen as "Raphael's masterpiece and the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the Renaissance". The fresco "School of Athens" itself includes 21 distinct figures set against a backdrop of a school. The figures are engaged in conversation, work or games. All of the figures are male and are believed to represent all significant Greek philosophers.

The fresco also includes images of statues within the school displayed within the school. One statue is Apollo, the Greek god of light, archery and music, holding a lyre. The other statue is Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, shown in her Roman form as Minerva. The building itself is shown in a cross-shape with the figures in the foreground and the interior receding behind them.

The figures are scattered across steps and walkways within the school and the fresco is framed with an arch decorated with arabesque swastikas.

Madonna and child enthroned with saints raphael

The fresco "The School of Athens" does not depict a real group of Athenians -here are not only the Athenians for example, the philosophers Parmenides and his disciple Zeno were not citizens of Athens and not only contemporaries, but also thinkers who lived in other times and in other countries for example, Persian philosopher-mystic Zoroaster, who lived several centuries before Plato, or a Muslim translator and commentator, who lived many centuries later Aristotle Averroes.

Thus, the "School of Athens" is the perfect community of thinkers of the classical era, the community of teachers and students. However, portraying these famous people of the past, Rafael gives them the features of his prominent contemporaries.