The School of Athens
The School of Athens (Italian: Scuola di Atene) is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1509 and 1511 as part of a commission by Pope Julius II to decorate the rooms now called the Stanze di Raffaello in the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City.
For the school of philosophy of classical Athens, see Platonic Academy. For the U.S. preparatory school, see Athenian School.The School of Athens
The fresco depicts a congregation of ancient philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists, with Plato and Aristotle featured in the center. The identities of most figures are ambiguous or discernable only through subtle details or allusions;[1] among those commonly identified are Socrates, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Heraclitus, Averroes, and Zarathustra. Additionally, Italian artists Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo are believed to be portrayed through Plato and Heraclitus, respectively.[2][3] Raphael included a self-portrait beside Ptolemy. Raphael is the only character who is looking directly at the viewer in the artwork.
The painting is notable for its use of accurate perspective projection, a defining characteristic of Renaissance art, which Raphael learned from Leonardo; likewise, the themes of the painting, such as the rebirth of Ancient Greek philosophy and culture in Europe were inspired by Leonardo's individual pursuits in theatre, engineering, optics, geometry, physiology, anatomy, history, architecture and art.[4]
The School of Athens is regarded as one of Raphael's best-known works and has been described as his "masterpiece and the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the Renaissance".[5]
Drawings and cartoon[edit]
A number of drawings made by Raphael as studies for the School of Athens are extant.[18] A study for the Diogenes is in the Städel in Frankfurt[19] while a study for the group around Pythagoras, in the lower left of the painting, is preserved in the Albertina Museum in Vienna.[20] Several drawings, showing the two men talking while walking up the steps on the right and the Medusa on Athena's shield,[21][a] the statue of Athena (Minerva) and three other statues,[23] a study for the combat scene in the relief below Apollo[24] and "Euclid" teaching his pupils[25] 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.[26] 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.[27] 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.[28]
Copies[edit]
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has a rectangular copy over 4 metres by 8 metres in size, painted on canvas, dated 1755 by Anton Raphael Mengs, on display in the eastern Cast Court.[29]
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.[30]
A 1689 tapestry reproduction by the Gobelins Manufactory and commissioned by Louis XIV hangs above the presiding officer's platform in the French National Assembly chamber.[31] It had been removed in 2017 for a three-year restoration process undertaken by the Mobilier National, which manages Gobelins Manufactory.
Other reproductions include: in Königsberg Cathedral, Kaliningrad by Neide,[32] 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 Sainte-Geneviève Library 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.
![Carneades[37]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Plotinus2.jpg/127px-Plotinus2.jpg)
