Who painted the picture of the Athenian school. "school of athens" rafael santi

The Vatican stanzas were painted by Raphael from 1508 to 1518, but the artist himself was directly involved in their painting in 1508-1512. It is accidental, but significant that the time of Raphael's work on the paintings of the Stanzas exactly coincides with the time of Michelangelo's work on the Sistine ceiling - four years.
In Stanza della Senyatura, the quintessence of humanism is embodied, the glorification of the achievements of human thought in various fields of activity: the creative genius of man, the genius of science and art - a philosophical science, like the queen of earthly sciences, and art with figures of poets from Homer to Dante and, possibly, a contemporary Raphael Ariosto.
The name of the fresco "School of Athens" was not given by Raphael himself. Initially, apparently, it was called simply "Philosophy". "School of Athens" - the name does not quite correspond to the one depicted, because here, besides the Athenian philosophers, there are many who have never been to Athens. And besides, here are collected, as you know, images of those thinkers of the past who lived in different time and physically could not meet each other in any way.
Raphael creates a kind of ideal image of an ideal collection of ideal thinkers. A kind of ideal kingdom of philosophy, just as the artists of the late Quattrocento created the neoplatonic ideal Gardens of Eros - for example, Botticelli's "Spring" - the philosophical garden of philosophical eros. Likewise, Raphael has a kind of ideal City, where the most different directions of human thought coexist and perfectly coexist. In the old art criticism, attempts were sometimes made to isolate from this composition the personal philosophical preferences of Raphael, to find out what he gives priority to - the idealism of Plato, in the image of Leonardo da Vinci, pointing to heaven, or the powerful specifics of Aristotle, casting his hand down to the earth. Looking for whose side Raphael is on is completely in vain. Just like examining the Mona Lisa's smile psychologically. Raphael is busy with something else. Not a proof, but a demonstration of how diverse human thought is, what various majestic systems it can create, to what different heights of the spirit it can rise, what different areas she can hug. Because this fresco presents both the geometry of Euclid, and the mathematics of Pythagoras, and the Pythagorean doctrine of music, and the astronomical ideas of the ancients. Apparently, Raphael was advised by the humanists of the papal court, scientists who were in Rome at the beginning of the 16th century. there were quite a few.
Iconological research has shown that almost every figure, at least with a high degree of probability, symbolizes, if not an individual philosopher, then some property of human nature and human knowledge, some specific human dignity. Whether it is vigor or moderation. It is a perfect miracle that the central characters, which undoubtedly dominate the almost fifty-figure composition, the figures of Plato and Aristotle, do not seem to stand out from the rest, either in size or by the fact that they are placed in the foreground. And at the same time, they are absolutely immediately, without any hesitation, are sought and perceived by us both as an optical, and as a semantic, and as a spiritual center of the image.
In the composition of this fresco, a whole system of repeatedly repeating arched lines in a downward direction was created, which inevitably brings our gaze to this complementary gesture, meaning and state of a pair of soap-makers. The image of the majestic architecture is designed with such convincingness that it seems not so much fictitious as real-life, or rather written with real-life. Here there is a clear overlap with the architectural ideas of Bramante, with the architectural ideas of the High Renaissance. Even some seeming centricity of this majestic temple of philosophy is associated precisely with Brahman's ideas of the centric temple as the most perfect form of Renaissance architecture. Think of Bramante's colossal plan, the plan for the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral and his small centric temple, the only building that he actually managed to carry out.

In the background group, in the center of which Aristotle and Plato triumph, there is also Socrates, and, apparently, Alcibiades, to whom Socrates refers. This group is opposed by the groups of the foreground, and they are not symmetrical - the left group of scientists and their students has moved a little closer to the center than the right. Spatially they occupy a very different place... And at the same time, there is absolutely no feeling of imbalance between right and left. We do not notice at all that part of the fresco falls out, since the doorway begins, it visually does not bother us at all. And these unequal and at the same time ideally harmonious groups are balanced by the figure of the notorious Diogenes, the most famous philosopher of the cynic school, who spreads diagonally on the steps of the staircase. This figure is, as it were, intermediate between the two groups of the foreground, and at the same time it leads our eye into the depths. She fills the void of the stairs. In addition, Diogenes is located so that we perceive it in movement from the inside out, from depth to the foreground, and in the opposite movement, also connecting the foreground and background, is given from the back the figure of a young man climbing the steps. So unobtrusively and at the same time, rhythmically, plastically-spatially, absolutely convincingly, he connects both groups and plans into a kind of single and completely indissoluble whole.

V. Klevayev. "Lectures on the history of art. High Renaissance. Raphael Santi "

The School of Athens is the most famous of the frescoes painted by Raphael in the papal chambers of the Vatican. The artist was only in his twenties when he started working on this complex composition. The figures of the thinkers of ancient Greece, deeply revered in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, symbolize philosophy, literature, theology, jurisprudence and art.

The philosophers Plato and Aristotle stand in the center, at the top of the stairs, surrounded by the mathematician Euclid, the astronomer Ptolemy and other great scientists of antiquity. It is believed that the gray-haired and bearded Plato is Leonardo, and the thinker in the foreground is Michelangelo. The plot, the unity of the figures and the noble symmetry of the composition overflowing with grandeur became the unsurpassed embodiment of the ideals of the Renaissance.

Plato and Aristotle.

Not all figures in the fresco can be identified with absolute certainty, however, the great Greek philosophers Plato (427 - 347 BC BC BC) and his student Aristotle (384– 322 BC BC BC) are easily recognizable by the titles of the books they hold in their hands. Plato's hand is facing up, and the hand of Aristotle– down, open palm to the ground. These gestures concentrate their philosophical ideas.– in Plato they are more abstract, in Aristotle they are more practical and logical.

Mathematics and Music.

In his works, Pythagoras (c. 580 - OK. 500 BC BC BC) tried to connect mathematics and music, therefore it is deeply symbolic that his figure is depicted under the statue of Apollo. On the tablet in his hands are inscribed mathematical formulas, with the help of which he strove to describe musical harmony, which should have become the key to understanding the harmony of the world.

Plato used these formulas to calculate the harmonious proportions of the soul, and this idea was described in detail by him in the treatise Timaeus, with which he is depicted in the fresco.

Kinik Diogenes.

A half-naked figure sitting on the steps in an extremely uncomfortable position - this is the Greek cynic Diogenes (c. 400– 325 BC BC BC), whose philosophy was based on the adoption of an ascetic lifestyle as the only way achieve true independence and freedom. Diogenes himself completely denied all comforts and lived on the outskirts of Athens in a barrel of burnt clay

Self-portrait with the ancient Greeks.

On the fresco, Raphael painted himself, and behind his back, perhaps, a portrait of his teacher, Perugino. In the same group we see Ptolemy holding the earthly sphere in his hand. Ptolemy lived in the 2nd century BC. e., was an astronomer and argued that the Earth is the center of the universe. It is believed that the figure holding the celestial sphere in his hand belongs to the Persian prophet Zoroaster.

Euclid and the disciples

The bald mathematician Euclid (Vasari claims that this is a portrait of Rafael's comrade, the architect Bramante) shows drawings traced on a tablet that should confirm his geometric idea. Euclid's students are depicted in such a way that, by their gestures and facial expressions, we can trace at what stage of understanding the teacher's thoughts each of them is.

"Stanza"- a room in translation from Italian. Raphael's Stanzas are rooms in the Vatican, painted by Raphael and his disciples:
Stanza del Incendio di Borgo ("Fire in Borgo" fresco)
Stanza della Senyatura
Stanza d "Eliodoro (Room of Eliodoro)
Each wall of these rooms is occupied by a fresco composition, that is, in each room there are four fresco compositions. On the Stanza della Senyatura and the fresco paintings Plato and Aristotle, Pythagoras, Euclid with His Disciples, Heraclitus. Description and Photo.

First, the middle of the three stanzas was painted - "Stanza della Senyatura" (Signature Room), so named because the Church Tribunal sat here, the papal seal was kept and decrees were signed. Pope Julius decided to assign this room to his Personal Area and the library, which determined the plot of the wall painting - four spheres of human spiritual activity: Theology, Philosophy, Jurisprudence and Poetry. On each wall of the room (stanzas) there is a completed fresco painting. These four fresco paintings are named: the first - "Dispute" (it depicts the dispute about the Holy Communion), the second "School of Athens", the third - consists of several smaller compositions, the fourth "Parnassus". On the vault above each fresco there is an allegorical figure - a symbol of each of these activities, and in the corners of the vault - small compositions thematically related tofrescoes. In this article, we will dwell on the fresco "School of Athens" and eefragments "Plato and Aristotle", "Pythagoras", "Euclid with his disciples", "Heraclitus".

Raphael Santi "School of Athens"

The "School of Athens", one of the masterpieces of Renaissance art, was recognized as the best fresco stanza and the greatest work of Raphael. Using all the means of painting of his time, Raphael overcame the difficulties of coloring and the imposition of fresco paints, thanks to which he achieved the most complete impact on the viewer. On the fresco there is an extensive Renaissance portico. In the School of Athens, as in other frescoes of the stations, Raphael created a composition that is not built along the front edge, but in the form of a semicircle on which events unfold. The artist in this fresco has combined a huge number of figures in harmonious composition, therefore, the "School of Athens" is still considered a high example of the heroic genre.

The fresco embodies and glorifies the Truth (Vero) and symbolizes the rational search for truth by philosophy and science. It depicts ancient philosophers, whose ideas and works largely shaped spiritual world Renaissance. They are wise, self-confident people of strong will and high dignity. Many of them are endowed with the features of great philosophers, artists and famous contemporaries of the author. According to the plan of Raphael, according to the ideas of Neoplatonism, this similarity was to symbolize the relationship between ancient philosophy and new theology. The artist has brilliantly coped with the task of distributing more than 50 characters on a mural, where each is endowed with individuality.

Raphael Santi "Plato and Aristotle"

Not all figures in the fresco can be identified with absolute certainty, but the great Greek philosophers Plato (427 - 347 BC) and his student Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) are easily recognizable by the titles of the books in their hands. ... Plato (in a red cloak and with the features of Leonardo da Vinci) points with his hand to the sky, and Aristotle's hand (in a blue cloak) is turned with his open palm toward the Earth. In these gestures, philosophical ideas are also concentrated - abstract in Plato (his world of ideas is found in heaven) and more practical and grounded in Aristotle (his world of ideas is associated with earthly experience). The figures of Plato and Aristotle are noticeably larger and taller than the adjacent figures. But this is not a violation of the logic of perspective construction, this is a technique for highlighting the central characters, when low figures are depicted next to tall figures (Plato and Aristotle). On all sides, the figures of Plato and Aristotle are surrounded by groups of philosophers and scientists different schools and their students. Above to the left of Plato is Socrates. On the fingers of one hand he lists the convincing arguments of his teaching, causing delight and amazement to the students and people around him. The most attentive of the listeners is the young warrior Alcibiades in a helmet and full armor. Below is Epicurus in a wreath, advising to enjoy life, and Zeno, a philosopher of opposite views, and next to it is the figure of Pythagoras.

Raphael Santi "Pythagoras"

In his works, Pythagoras (circa 580 - 500 BC) tried to connect mathematics and music. On the tablet in his hands are inscribed mathematical formulas, with the help of which he strove to describe musical harmony, which should have become the key to understanding the harmony of the world. Plato used these formulas to calculate the harmonic proportions of the soul. This idea is described in detail by Plato in the treatise "Tineas", with which he is depicted in the fresco.

Raphael Santi "Euclid with his disciples"

Below right, the bald mathematician Euclid (with the features of Bramante) shows his students drawings that should confirm his geometric idea. The artist put his signature in gold letters on Euclid's tunic at the neck: “R. V. S. M. " ("Raphael Urbinsky with his hand"). In the group next to him, Raphael portrayed himself in a black beret, in the form of the ancient Greek painter Apelles.

Raphael Santi "Heraclitus"

In the foreground is the lonely figure of Heraclitus, immersed in thought. This portrait of Michelangelo is a sign of Raphael's deep respect for his rival, who at the same time painted the Sistine Chapel. This image appeared on the fresco later, after Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel were discovered, which so impressed Raphael's imagination that he even changed his writing style. An interesting detail - Heraclitus is written in the manner of Michelangelo, he sits in a complex pose, his figure resembles the prophets from the plafond of the Sistine Chapel. There is a legend that Michelangelo visited Stanza della Senyatura, looked at the frescoes for a long time and seemed to be pleased with what he saw. Recognizing himself in the image of Heraclitus, he rejoiced: "However, I am glad that the Urbino man was smart enough not to put me in the crowd of arguing rhetoric."

The atmosphere of high spiritual ascent in the "School of Athens" is achieved not only by the individual expressiveness of the heroes, but also by the character of the environment surrounding these heroes - the majestic classical architecture of the High Renaissance. It is possible that the architectural background was inspired by the project of St. Peter's Cathedral, on which Bramante was working at the time.

Depicts one of the remarkable phenomena of ancient history. Originating in Ancient Athens in the classical period, this school became the standard of the institution for the upbringing of a free, harmoniously developed person.

Education in Ancient Athens: features

In democratic Athens, especially during the reign of Pericles, the upbringing and education of citizens was of great importance. The upbringing took place within the framework of the principle of kalokagatiya - a combination of "virtues": body culture and readiness to fulfill civic duties. The former was classified as external culture or body culture, and the latter as internal culture.

Agonism was another principle of education in Athens. That is, a competitive spirit based on personal superiority was used.

Types of schools in ancient Athens

Among the main types of Athenian schools are:

Schools for teaching teenagers to read and write and music (from 7 to 13-14 years old):
Palestras are sports schools.
Gymnasiums are schools for continuing education of adults.

Description of the Athenian school

V educational schools boys were taught literacy and numeracy. Teenagers of any class, both urban and rural, could study here.

What was taught in the Athenian schools? In grammarians, counting was taught with fingers, then pebbles, and later - boards with pebbles, reminiscent of abacus. Younger schoolchildren learned to write. They wrote with pointed metal or bone sticks - style or stylus (s). On the other end of the stylus there was something like a spatula - for leveling the surface and erasing erroneous notes. Letters and texts were written on tablets covered with a layer of wax. The older students wrote with a reed on papyrus.

In addition to teaching writing, at the Athenian school of the kypharist, teenagers learned to read mainly on historical and artistic material - the poems of Homer "Iliad" and "Odyssey" and myths, verses of famous Greek poets and plays by playwrights Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus (at an older age) ... Also, teachers instilled in them the skills of drawing and playing music. Moreover, music-making began to be mastered only after acquaintance with poetry. In addition to playing musical instruments, young men also mastered musical notation. And the art of playing the flute entered the curriculum of Athenian schools after the Persian wars.

In the course of the educational process, the teacher could not only use encouraging methods, for example, earlier to write on papyrus, but also punishments. For this, he always had a lash made of oxtails in his hands.

In ordinary schools, from the very beginning of training, gymnastics classes were introduced, because without physical beauty and health it is impossible to raise a harmoniously developed person.

As history says

In Athenian schools and gymnasiums, emphasis was placed on the external form. For more serious sports, the palasters were used. Their boys could attend from the age of twelve. In the palestra, they did gymnastics, which then included running, wrestling, jumping and throwing a javelin and a discus.

The main ideal of the sports figure was the sculptures of famous Greek masters exhibited in the porticoes of the palestre: Miron "Discobolus" and Polycletus "Diadumenus" and "Dorifor".

Classes in good weather were held in the restyle - the inner open courtyard, and in cloudy - in the covered galleries or porticoes that surrounded it. Since the boys worked naked and smeared their bodies with olive oil, after classes they performed ablution with water from a fountain, well or bath located on the territory of the Palestine.

Interestingly, the Palestinians were still taught the principles of eloquence and singing songs, which later young Athenians sang at feasts. Pundits also talked with them about politics and morality.

Education in gymnasiums

The gymnasiums served to continue education, and adult citizens of Athens were engaged in them. Opportunities for both spiritual and sports development of a person were presented here.

Usually gymnasiums were built outside the city among beautiful nature... They had areas for gymnastics, swimming pools and saunas, as well as rooms for relaxation and long intellectual conversations and arguments.

Here one could attend the speeches of famous scientists of that time, as well as learn eloquence and rhetoric, the ability to competently conduct disputes and defend one's opinion.

The Role of Educators in Athenian Education

In Athenian society, in the families of noble citizens, it was accepted that boys up to seven years old only played outdoor games, but then a teacher was selected for them to accompany and educate. The very word "teacher" in translation from Greek literally means "accompanying the child". Usually, an old, sometimes crippled slave was hired for this position, who sometimes did not even hear well and spoke almost no Greek.

The teachers were responsible for the child's daily attendance at school: accompanied to her and back, carried school supplies and musical instruments that any Athenian should have been able to play. Most often it was a flute.

At home, the teacher's duties included teaching the boy etiquette and good manners. Also, the teacher had to punish the pupil with rods for failure to comply with requirements and offenses.

History of Plato's Academy

The history of the Athenian school is associated with the philosophical trend of the associates and followers of the Greek thinker Plato, who stood at its foundation. Representatives of the current from the 4th century. BC NS. gathered within the walls of the Athenian Academy, also founded by Plato.

The main didactic teaching method used at the Academy is dialogue or, in other words, dialectics. She was mastered at two conditional levels of education: for the younger and for the older. Studied here various subjects, but special emphasis was placed on astronomy and mathematics.

The academy has had four renewals. Under Speusippus, Plato's nephew, the Academy began to teach on a paid basis and trained mainly orators and statesmen. Platonic-Pythagorean philosophy was widespread here. And the Academy itself became a spiritual center for aristocrats and educated Athenians. Even women aspired to study at the Academy.

The case of Speusippus was continued by Xenocrates, who attracted all the celebrities of vast Greece. Further, the Academy was alternately headed by the followers of the same philosophical teaching- Polemon, Crates and Krantor.

Arkesilaus turned the vector of the Academy in a different direction: he adhered to the theory of complete abstinence from judgments, ascertained the point of view of his listeners and conducted an active conversation with them. The mind of the student was at the forefront, and not the authority of the teacher. He opposed dogmatism. Arkesilaus was succeeded as head of the Academy by Lacidus and Carneades. The latter denied the sensory and instinctive perception of the world and the attempt to cognize it through them.

An attempt to revive the Academy in the spirit of Plato was made by Antiochus of Askolonsky.

The famous creation of Raphael

The fresco painting "The School of Athens" is one of the maestro's greatest creations. It was created to decorate the papal palace in the Vatican and is placed on one of the walls of la Stance della Seniatura. What is depicted on the fresco had little in common with a real Athenian school, apparently a gymnasium. In absolutely not antique, but more Renaissance architecture, there are figures of adults dressed in antique clothes.

Among them you can find artistic images, in which Raphael embodied his idea of the most learned minds Ancient Greece- Aristotle, Plato, Heraclitus, etc. The opinion is expressed that in these three men the master portrayed with the transfer of a portrait similarity of three titans of the Renaissance - Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti and himself - Raphael Santi.

According to history, all the characters depicted by Raphael are divided into groups, each of which is busy with some business: they listen to the stories of sages, argue, study documents and the latest devices, and conduct philosophical conversations. This is the territory of the "spirit". But the territory of the "body" is absent in the fresco - the author did not depict athletes or places for taking water procedures.

Essay-description of the fresco

Raphael Santi

"School of Athens"

1510-1511. Stanza della Senyatura.

The School of Athens by Raphael Santi is one of the most important pieces in our school. School is a temple of science and art, it is here that all beginnings begin. The fresco clearly demonstrates this.

In 1508, the Italian artist Raphael Santi was commissioned to paint the apartments of Pope Julius II in the Vatican. The 25-year-old boy was to create murals in three rooms of the Vatican Palace. The first of the three stanzas (that is, rooms), Stanza della Señatura, was the place where papal decrees were sealed. It was here that murals appeared, representing four areas of human spiritual activity: theology is the fresco "Dispute", philosophy - "The School of Athens", poetry - "Parnassus", justice - "Wisdom, Moderation and Strength". The best fresco of the stanzas and the greatest work of Raphael should be recognized as the "School of Athens".

The School of Athens, as this fresco began to be called many years after it was painted, depicts the Academy founded by Plato in Athens in the 4th century BC. NS. Raphael was well aware that the meetings of this Academy were held in the open air, in an olive grove. But, nevertheless, the artist chooses a majestic building in the classical Roman style as a background. Such a structure seemed to him a more fitting place for the birth of the lofty ideas of the Renaissance than any natural landscape.

Raphael does not show us the entire building, but only the grandiose suite of its majestic arched spans. In the niches near the powerful foundations are the statues of the god of music Apollo and Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, the patroness of all educational institutions. Raphael builds the architecture of the building depicted on the fresco according to the laws of the theater, and on this stage, as on a stage, he effectively and harmoniously arranges human figures.

In the center, among the characters, Plato and Aristotle are depicted walking forward, directly at the viewer. Philosophers are passionate about controversy. The first points to the sky, which, he believed, determines all human life, the second stretches out his hand to the ground. In their posture, in their gait, there is a truly regal grandeur, just as on their faces we feel the imprint of a great thought. These are the most ideal images of the fresco; not without reason the prototype of Plato in the Raphael composition was Leonardo da Vinci. To the left of Plato - Socrates, talking with the audience, among whom stands out the young Alcibiades in an armor and a helmet. Directly on the steps, like a beggar at the stairs of a temple, the founder of the school of cynics, Diogenes, is at ease. Below, in the foreground, are two symmetrically placed groups: on the left - Pythagoras with his disciples, kneeling on one knee with a book in his hands; on the right, also surrounded by his students, Euclid (or Archimedes); bending down low, he draws with a compass on the lying on the floor slate board... To the right of this group are Zoroaster and Ptolemy (wearing a crown), each of them holding a sphere in his hand. At the very edge of the fresco, Raphael depicted himself and the painter Sodoma, who had begun work in this stanza before him.

Despite the abundance of characters, the "School of Athens" gives the impression of unity. Raphael alternates between static and dynamic poses of the characters, the whole composition goes in a circle, it is closed by a light, slender architecture, filled with air.

Outstanding masters of bygone eras, who appeared before us on the fresco "School of Athens", tried to test harmony with algebra, to curb creative emotions with precise mathematical calculations. They understood that science and art are two facets of the same process - creativity. This fresco clearly shows us how closely the exact and humanitarian sciences are closely related, it glorifies the power of the human mind.

That is why the "School of Athens" took an honorable place in our school gallery, because, like the 50 characters in this fresco, the students and teachers of our school are united by a common desire for truth, beauty, harmony, which should triumph in human life.

Completed by: Borodina Veronica