Artwork of the Day - 30 November 2004

[Mephisto2]

Raphael
The School of Athens
1509
Vaticano, Stanza della Segnatura, Rome


The School of Athens is one of Raphael's most famous pieces. It depicts Zeno, Epicurus, Averroës, Pythagoras, Xenophon, Socrates, Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Diogenes, Euclid, Zoroaster, Ptolemy and Raphael himself.

How many can you find?

http://www.newbanner.com/AboutPic/at.../nbi_ath4.html

The following Commentary about the painting "Scuola Di Atene" (School of Athens) by Raphael appears on the Web Page of George Mason University in Virginia. www.cas.gmu.edu/sch_athens.html.

"The center of the fresco shows us two of the fundamental characters of western philosophy, Plato (on the left of the painting with his finger pointing to the sky) and Aristotle (on the right with his finger pointing to the ground, in a symbolism which we leave to the reader to unearth). Plato carries under his arm a book whose title is clearly visible if you have the opportunity to see the fresco in its original form. The book is one of Plato's most influential dialogues (and probably the most analyzed dialogue of the Middle Ages), The Timaeus (Timeo, in the painting).

"The topic of the dialogue is the origin of the universe, and its treatment is a fascinating mixture of legend, mathematics, music, and philosophy, an early example of the unity of knowledge which is embodied in the liberal arts. Aristotle's book is the no-less influential Ethics, and seeing the two books side by side reminds us directly of the importance of ethics in the education of our students and in the making of good citizens, one of the declared objectives of the liberal arts.

"As Plato and Aristotle descend the stairs at the center of the fresco, we have the opportunity to observe a few other central characters. At Plato's left, we see his teacher Socrates, chasing away old ideas, and in front of Socrates, Pythagoras, discussing with a student the foundations of music. On the other side, Ptolemy, the great geographer, is represented holding a globe, and below him, the great Euclid, the founder of geometry (or at least its first great writer).

"But on closer inspection the painting reveals even more fascinating discoveries. We see, for example, near Ptolemy the Arab scholar Averroes, who is responsible for the modern western knowledge of the work of Aristotle. It is singularly interesting and relevant to what we do, that Raphael wanted to make explicit, in the middle of a painting which seems to be devoted uniquely to the western heritage, the debt such heritage owes to other cultures.

"The painting has two clear messages. The first is that knowledge is a dialogue, a dialogue which is implicit in the process of learning. When we learn, when we study, when we produce new knowledge, we are engaging in a dialogue which transcends time and space. This dialogue is not just with our contemporaries, but with our precursors as well as with the scholars of centuries to come. This message is implicit in the parade of scholars from different times and places all congregated at the School of Athens. This dialogue takes place in a community beyond both space and time, a community which is being continuously recreated.

"The second message in the painting is the unity of knowledge. At the School of Athens, many different disciplines are taught, but it is their simultaneous teaching that constitutes the strength and uniqueness of the liberal arts. Note the metaphor that Raphael himself uses to signify the unity of knowledge -- the architectural structure. If we look again at the fresco, we see that the School, in which many characters are moving around, is physically enclosed by three arches which trace imaginary circles around the main actor/teachers. The architecture forms a unifying element, and therefore serves as our final metaphor for the College of Arts and Sciences; the locus is not a physical but an intellectual one, which provides the opportunity for the development of both the community and the dialogue which bring the liberal arts back to life."

Mr Mephisto