Raphael and Ancient Greece

As we jump into our unit on Ancient Greece, I thought it would be cool to share one of my favorite works of art, Raphael's The School of Athens. Raphael was a highly-renowned Italian Renaissance artist known for his frescoes (a type of mural) that decorated the Palace of the Vatican.

The School of Athens depicts a gathering of many of Ancient Greece's famous philosophers and writers, including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Although the fresco is chronologically incorrect (not all of these famous figures lived at the same time), it highlights the school of classical philosophy that began with the Ancient Greeks.



The two central figures of the painting are Plato (the man with the white beard dressed in red) and his student Aristotle (next to Plato to the right). Plato is looking up, symbolizing his search for higher ethical meaning and his philosophical nature--which is not surprising considering he wrote The Allegory of the Cave. Aristotle is looking down, revealing his focus on more earthly, concrete ideas.



Sources: 
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Raphael-Italian-painter-and-architect
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_Rooms#The_School_of_Athens