The School Of Athens

In the "Stanza della Segnatura" (the Signature’s Room), room used as library and where the Pope Julius II signed the decrees of the ecclesiastical court, Rafael painted some frescos which represent the four cultural fundamental disciplines: Theology, Philosophy, Poetry and Jurisprudence. One of the episodes shown in this room, which represents the Philosofy, is the famous School of Athens.

In the city of Athens, in 387 b.C., Plato – Greek philosopher and mathematic - established a scientific and philosophic studies academy. This academy became one of the most important centres of Maths and Philosophy research and teaching of the Classical Antiquity. This Academy was one of the major symbols of the rational search of the truth and specially a symbol for the theory mathematical studies.

The fresco The School of Athens, is an allegory that represents the historical continuity of the thought of Plato’s Academy through several personalities of the Greek mathematical and philosophical world.

In this painting, Rafael represents the most important thinkers of all times, especially from the Ancient Greece where some of them are personified as famous men of the Renaissance. Plato looks like Leonardo da Vinci, Euclid looks like Bramante and Heraclitus looks like Michelangelo. Maybe it was Rafael's way to tie the past to a present and to pay tribute to his great contemporaries.

Plato was a follower of the school of Pythagoras, and, consequently, studies in his school gave great emphasis to numbers, especially in what concerned reasons and harmonies. Knowing that, Rafael, in the group of the Geometry people, placed Pythagoras on the left, representing the Harmony Theory, and Euclid on the right, representing the logical perfection of the Geometry.

In The School of Athens, Rafael gave great emphasis to math and, in particular, to the number, reason, and harmony.