Time for another Rome-with-Professor-Hann-link blog post. The facts... The School Of Athens is a fresco painted by Raphael in 1510 and is located inside a chapel in Vatican City. It depicts a lot of well known Greek philosophers. Plato stands in the middle, pointing to the sky. Next to him Aristotle holds a copy of his book Ethics. Pythagoras can be seen on the left teaching his mathematical theories. On the right Euclid (the so-called father of geometry) is drawing with a pair of compasses. I think this is the reason that professor Hann used to show us this painting nearly every lecture. I especially like how Raphael has painted himself into the scene over on the far right, looking out at us wearing a black beret. Another point of interest is Raphael's sound use of perspective. All the lines of the building converge to a vanishing point - a technique that was largely absent from artists' work before the Renaissance.
I was inspired by this painting because for a start I knew a bit about it already and seeing it in real life really made an impression on me. The painting must be a sort of personal tribute to Raphael's heroes - he was apparently well versed on Greek philosophy. It's also interesting that it is Pagan subject matter in a Christian chapel. I also love portraiture and this was some of the best I've ever seen.
Great post, really interesting and nostalgic. Am I right in thinking that the painting is on the ceiling and therefore Raphael painted it on his back?! That's pretty impressive! I also heard that the vanishing point is directly above the centre point of a mosaic floor underneath it and that if you drew a line through these two points into the sky it would be underneath the northern star as well... that could all be bollocks though!?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments Edd, nice to see someone loves me. The School Of Athens is on the wall, but it's huge so there was definitely some scaffolding involved. The next-door room to this is The Sistine Chapel where Michelangelo painted the famous ceiling fresco.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, it's obviously on the wall seeing as there is a door (!!!) in your photo.
ReplyDeleteWhere the hell am I thinking of then? There is definately some vanishing point mural somewhere that is aligned with the stars.... or something!