Raphael

Dedicated to the role of philosophical debate, Raphael presents the quest for knowledge as a transformative force in mankind’s evolution. 

His father was a prominent court painter to the Duke of Urbino, teaching his boy basic painting techniques from a young age. He also educated his son in the principles of humanist thinking, and the works of the classicists. Raphael was 11 when his father died in 1494, leaving him to manage the art workshop.

Even as a teenager, he was considered a far more accomplished (having a lot of skill in art, music, writing, etc) painter than his father, and was soon noted as one of the finest artists in Urbino, which was considered to be the epicenter of cultural achievement at the time.

Raphael was quickly chosen for a commission at an important church in the neighboring province of Perugia. By the age of 21, he had moved to Florence, where he was immediately struck by the magnificent works surrounding him on all sides – by Leonardo,Michelangelo, Masaccio 

([mazattʃo];  1401 1428), bornTommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was the first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, Masaccio was the best painter of his generation because of hiss kill at recreating life like figures and movements as well as a convincing sense of three-dimensionality. Masaccio died at twenty-six and little isknown about the exact circumstances of his death)

(The cultural and artistic events of 15th-century in Italy are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento (Italian pronunciation: [ˌkwattroˈtʃɛnto]) from the Italian for the number 400, in turn from millequattrocento, 1400, the year that ended the14th century. Quattrocento encompassesthe artistic styles of the late Middle Ages (most notably International Gothic and theearly Renaissance)

They seemed to Raphael to have achieved a higher level of mastery in composition than he had ever seen, and he studied their painting in intimate (a very good knowledge/understanding of something, so you know all of the facts about it or about how it works) detail, in order to develop a more intricate, expressive style. 

Leonardo’s ability to portray human emotion transfixed (unable to move or stop looking at something because you are so interested, surprised, or frightened) him, and he quickly began to introduce tender expressions and sublime (extremely good, beautiful, or enjoyable) coloring into his own work. In the same way, Michelangelo’s ability to make his figures interact would dynamically influence Raphael’s use of light to animate his paintings, giving his forms their dimensionality. 

Raphael’s superb Madonna of the Pinks   ('La Madonna dei Garofani')

 

In 1508, he was called to Rome to paint for Pope Julius II in the Vatican, a remarkable triumph for such a young man. 

Here, Raphael was entrusted (to make someone responsible for doing something or looking after something) with an entire room to create a series of frescoes, which drew on the academic teachings of his father. 

All the frescoes are spectacular, but his School of Athens  (Raphael's School of Athens was not meant as any type of school that actually existed (i. e. Plato's Academy) but an ideal community of intellects from the entire classical world. To facilitate this vision, Raphael created a spacious hall that recalls the "temples raised by philosophy" written by the Roman poet Lucretius.) was immediately recognised as one of the greatest artistic achievements of all time – despite being surrounded in the Vatican by paintings that had been revered through the centuries. 

In fact, there never was such a school; instead, the painting portrays an idealized community of outstanding intellectuals from the ancient classical era.

The spacious hall is redolent (If something is redolent of something else, it has features that make you think of that other thing) of the teachings of the Roman poet Lucretius in his treatise (a formal piece of writing that examines a particular subject) "On the Nature of Things".

("On the Nature of Things", long poem written in Latin as De rerum natura by Lucretius that sets forth the physical theory of the Greek philosopher Epicurus. The title of Lucretius’s work translates that of the chief work of Epicurus, Peri physeōs (On Nature).

Lucretius divided his argument into six books, beginning each with a highly polished (done with skill and style) introduction.

Books I and II establish the main principles of the atomic universe, refute (to say or prove that something is not true orcorrect)the rival theories of the pre-Socratic cosmic philosophers Heracleitus, Empedocles, and Anaxagoras, and covertly attack the Stoics, a school of moralists rivaling (to be good enough to compete with someone or something else)that of Epicurus.

Book III demonstrates the atomic structure and mortality of the soul and ends with a triumphant sermon on the theme “Death is nothing to us.”

Book IV describes the mechanics of sense perception, thought, and certain bodily functions and condemns sexual passion.

Book V describes the creation and working of the world and the celestial bodies and the evolution of life and human society.

Book VI explains remarkable phenomena of the earth and sky—in particular, thunder and lightning. The poem ends with a description of the plague at Athens, a sombre picture of death that contrasts with the depiction of spring and birth in the invocation to Venus with which the poem opens.

The linguistic style of the poem is notable. Its author’s aim was to render the bald (Bald facts or ways of saying things are very clearand are ot intended to comfort you) and abstract Greek prose of Epicurus into Latin hexameters at a time when Latin had no philosophic vocabulary. He succeeded by turning common words to a technical use. When necessary, he invented words. In poetic diction and style he was in debt to the older Latin poets, especially to Quintus Ennius, the father of Roman poetry. He freely used alliteration (Alliteration is the use in speech or writing of several words close together which all begin with the same letter or sound) and assonance(likeness of sound, as in a series of words or syllables), solemn and often metrically convenient archaic forms, and old constructions. He imitated or echoed Homer, the dramatists Aeschylus and Euripides, the poet and critic Callimachus, the historian Thucydides, and the physician Hippocrates)

The most obvious figures at the centre are Plato and Aristotle, each holding their writings, and discussing the respected merits of idealism versus realism. Plato seems to be pointing upwards, suggesting the power of the cosmos, while Aristotle takes a more grounded view, pointing down to illustrate his belief that ethics need to be practical in nature.

Another venerated (to honour or very much respect a person or thing) thinker, Socrates, is seen in a brown robe, looking towards the left. Pythagoras, the great mathematician, is in pink, along with Euclid, the father of geometry, shown in red robes.