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SCHOOL OF ATHENS
The fresco of “Philosophy” in the Camera della Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Rome.
Height to arched top 16 feet; width 26 feet 8 inches
This splendid fresco was painted by Raphael in 1511 to represent the “Triumph of Science,” asa companion painting to the Dispute of the Sacrament, representing the “Triumph of Religion.”Philosophy, implying an encyclopedic knowledge of the whole sphere of scientific learning andintellectual culture, is here symbolised. A vast portico is pictured, the arches of which are piercedwith statue-filled niches; the facing statues are Apollo and Minerva. The central figures arePlato and Aristotle. Grouped about them are all the philosophers, sages, and elders of antiquitydiscussing the problem of life. Diogenes is prone on the steps; Aristippus passes him talking toProtagoras; to the left, on the steps, Alcibiades, Xenophon and others are listening to Socrates.Below them are Pythagoras, with his wife Theano, his son Telauges, and his pupil Archytas;Anaxagoras is standing; Heraclitus sits alone, Democritus and Epicurus at the base of the pillar.To the right, on the steps are Pyrrho, Arcesilaus and others; below them Archimedes (a portrait ofBramante) teaches geometry, and Ptolemy and Zoroaster stand beside Raphael, Il Sodoma, andPerugino. Vasari says the fresco represents the union of Theology and Philosophy throughAstronomy, and points out Saint Matthew as Pythagoras. It has also been said to represent SaintPaul preaching at Athena, and in 1560 Giorgio Mantovano engraved it as Saint Paul disputing withthe Stoics and Epicureans.
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