In the most famous painting in the history of philosophy, what two philosophers are featured most prominently?
Subject: Philosophers - The School of Athens
Event: The artist Raphael is born, 1483
On this day in 1483, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino -- better known as the High Renaissance artist Raphael -- was born in Italy. When he was only in his mid-20s, Raphael was invited by Pope Julius II to live and work in Rome. In 1509, he began work on elaborate frescos for the rooms of the Papal Palace. Although he painted three frescoes representing theology, law, and poetry in the palace, his best-known work was one that celebrates philosophy, entitled The School of Athens.
Image by Welcome to All ! ツ from Pixabay
Measuring 17 feet high and 25 feet long, the School of Athens depicts a who's who of ancient Greek philosophers. Prominently featured in the center of the fresco are Plato and Aristotle. Plato carries a copy of his book Timaeus in his left hand and points to the sky with his right hand, an appropriate gesture for a man who created the Theory of Forms and emphasized the realm of abstract
ideas and concepts. On Plato’s left is his most accomplished student Aristotle. He carries a copy of his Nicomachean Ethics in his left hand and holds his right arm out with his palm facing down, a representation of his emphasis on empirical, concrete evidence, grounded in the physical world.
Although we don’t know for certain the identity of all the people depicted in the fresco, there is a general consensus among experts that at least seven other prominent figures are depicted: Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid, Ptolemy, Zoroaster, Heraclitus, Diogenes of Sinope.
Like Alfred Hitchcock did in his movies, Raphael himself makes a cameo. His self-portrait can be seen in the lower far right of the fresco, a young man looking directly at the viewer (1).
Recall, Recite, Retrieve, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: What two philosophers are depicted at the center of Raphael’s fresco the “School of Athens”? Who famously said described life as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”?
Today’s Challenge - Fielder’s Choice Philosophy: The English comedy troupe Monty Python famously produced a sketch featuring philosopher football (soccer) with German philosophers pitted against a toga-clad team of Greek philosophers. Using the nine prominent Greek philosophers from the School of Athens (Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid, Ptolemy, Zoroaster, Heraclitus, Diogenes of Sinope), assume the role of a baseball manager, and fill out your line-up for each of the nine positions: first base, second base, third base, shortstop, catcher, pitcher, right field, center field, and left field.
ALSO ON THIS DAY:
April 6, 1933: On this day William Lyon Phelps (1865-1943) -- American educator, literary critic, and author -- delivered a memorable radio address where he argued that not only is the habit of reading essential but also that people should build up their own collection of books and mark up their favorite passages. These books, argued Phelps, become like close friends:
. . . in a private library, you can at any moment converse with Socrates or Shakespeare or Carlyle or Dumas or Dickens or Shaw or Barrie or Galsworthy. And there is no doubt that in these books you see these men at their best. They wrote for you.
Sources:
1-Stewart, Jessica. “The Story Behind Raphael's Masterpiece ‘The School of Athens’” mymodernmet.com 6 Sept. 2018.
2-Phelps, William Lyon. “The Pleasure of Books.” The History Place.
No comments:
Post a Comment