The School of Athens

Ever since The School of Athens was painted during the Italian High Renaissance in the early 16th century, it has confounded art historians and scholars.

Dedicated to the central role of philosophical debate, Raphael (1483- 1520) presents the quest for knowledge as a transformative force in mankind’s evolution.

His father was a prominent court painter to the Duke of Urbino in 1483, teaching his son basic painting techniques from a young age.

Raphael was also inculcated by his parent in the principles of humanist thinking, and the works of the classicists. He was 11 when his father died, leaving him to manage the art workshop. Even as a teen he was considered a far more accomplished painter than his father, and was soon noted as one of the finest artists in an area at the epicentre of cultural achievement.

Raphael was quickly chosen for a commission to work at an important church in the neighbouring province in Perugia. By the age of 21, he had already moved to Florence, and was immediately struck by the magnificent works surrounding him on all sides – by da Vinci, Michelangelo, Masaccio and the other notables.

They seemed to Raphael to have achieved a higher level of mastery in composition than he had ever seen; he studied their painting in intimate detail, in order to develop a more intricate, expressive style.

Leonardo’s ability to portray human emotion transfixed him, and he quickly began to introduce tender expressions and sublime colouring into his own work.

In the same way, Michelangelo’s ability to make his figures interact would dynamically influence Raphael’s use of light to animate his paintings, giving his forms their dimensionality.

Raphael’s superb Madonna of the Pinks can be seen as a clear homage to Leonardo, and his entire series of Madonnas drew tremendous acclaim, particularly from the leading forces of the Renaissance.

He was called to move to Rome to paint for Pope Julius II in the Vatican, a remarkable triumph for such a young man.

Raphael was entrusted with an entire room to create a series of frescoes, which drew on the academic teachings of his father. All the frescoes are spectacular, but his School of Athens was immediately recognised as one of the highest achievements ever created – despite being surrounded in the Vatican by paintings that had been revered through the centuries.

There never was such a ‘School’ in reality; it portrayed an idealised community of outstanding intellect from the ancient classical era.

His spacious hall is redolent of the teachings of the Roman poet Lucretius in On the Nature of Things. The most obvious figures at the centre are Plato and Aristotle, each holding their writings, and discussing the respected merits of Idealism versus Realism.

Plato seems to be pointing upwards, suggesting the power of the cosmos, while Aristotle takes a more grounded view, pointing down to illustrate his belief that ethics need to be practical in nature.

The venerated thinker Socrates is seen in a brown robe, looking towards the left. Pythagoras, the esteemed mathematician, is seen in pink robes, and was unsurprisingly admired for his influence on Italianate architecture, along with Euclid, shown in red robes, the father of geometry.

Controversially, Raphael chose to draw the likenesses of his Renaissance heroes on the Greek figures.

Plato has the face of Leonardo da Vinci. Seated at the front, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus has been painted in the likeness of Michelangelo. Donatello’s face is placed on the body of Plotinus, standing towards the back of the picture.

Raphael included himself as one of the students crowded behind Pythagoras at the front left, and is the only figure staring straight back at the viewer.

This amalgamation of artists with philosophers synthesises the ancient and contemporary melding that characterises the highpoint of the Italian Renaissance.

Not all is certain about these readings, and scholars have puzzled over them for many decades.

Is it Archimedes who is demonstrating his theories using compasses, rather than Euclid? Ptolemy, the renowned astronomer, is generally agreed to be the figure holding a globe of the Earth, and behind him is his counterpart, the Persian Zoroaster, with a sphere to illustrate the fixed stars.

As a spectator viewing the work, you are invited to step into this world, to walk among the greats. However, the views of sky and the incompleteness of the architecture reflect that the School of Athens is not a physical building, but instead exists on some higher plane.

Perhaps most admired would be Raphael’s flawless brushwork. His paintings were considered more technically refined than all artists who had preceded him.

Nonetheless, School of Athens proved less influential in Italy than the works of Michelangelo and da Vinci.

It was accepted, however, that with the death of Raphael, the highpoint of Renaissance art subsided, and moved onward towards the direction of Mannerism and Baroque styles.

Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, had lofty ambitions to possess a powerful collection of the finest work by the greatest artists in Italy, and commissioned Raphael and his revered compatriot Fra Bartolmeo to make masterworks for him.

Sadly, both died before their pieces were fully executed. Raphael was just 37, and had only completed the preparatory layout of his painting.

It was left to Titian to complete the work, and his supreme Bacchus and Ariadne was the result – a masterpiece created in some part by two of the most gifted artists that the world has produced.

Raphael is best remembered by the illustrious Sir Joshua Reynolds: ‘The excellency of this extraordinary man lay in the propriety, beauty, and majesty of his characters, the judicious contrivance of his composition, correctness of drawing, purity of taste.

Nobody excelled him in that judgment, and to the question, therefore, which ought to hold the first rank, Raphael or Michelangelo, it must be answered, that if it is to be given to him who possessed a greater combination of the higher qualities of the art than any other man, there is no doubt but Raphael is the first.’