School Of Athens Essay

In 1509, an artist named Raphael was hired to paint a historical mural in the library at St. Peter’s church in Rome. Raphael envisioned the entire classical world into a small community of intellects. He did so by filling the mural with references and symbols from the past and present during this time. School of Athens, portrays a gathering of philosophers into a hall, with Plato and Aristotle as the center focal point. This mural was created at sixteen feet tall by twenty-five feet wide with charcoal and paint. Raphael used perspective, foreshortening, as well as light in School of Athens to show the significance of the gathered philosophers and their educational impact in history. When analyzing School of Athens, you will see that the figure on the ground is leaning against an object that is not in line with the rest of the hall structure. The reasoning behind this is that if Raphael had drawn the figure in line with the central vanishing point, the figure would have been completely distorted. To solve this problem, he introduced two more vanishing points to the composition. One of these additional vanishing points anchors the hall structure, or architecture. The block on the floor as well as other …show more content…
Linear perspective was used to give the effect of deep space, seeming as though the viewer could step into the space of this mural. The vanishing point of this piece lies between the heads of Plato and Aristotle. The floor tile lines and the pillar meet up at a vanishing point on the horizon. The converging lines create a sense of depth that redirects the viewer's gaze towards the two figures. These two are the focal point due to their different philosophies, both which were incorporated into Christianity. The use of this element put more emphasis on the role that Plato and Aristotle had in history reflected into this