The School of Athens -Raphael

Raphael's painting "The School of Athens" is an accurate look at the society that existed during the "High Renaissance", as the narrator of the short video referred to it. In fact, this painting is an excellent example of how art and artistic styles can actually represent the details of a real situation, such as a society.

"The School of Athens" is actually as much of a picture of Renaissance society as it is a great work of art. With the flowering of thought and new ideas that took place during the Renaissance, there seemed to be two main types of seeking and gaining knowledge that developed. One was the way of Plato, who believed that there was some higher philosophy that man needed to understand in order to make sense of the world. Plato had his followers, and many of them are shown on the left side of the painting. However, those on the right side of the painting represent the large division in society between Plato, the philosopher, and Aristotle, the scientific thinker. Among his followers, are those who tried to seek understanding of the world around them through their observation and perception, men such as Euclid the mathematician. On this side of the painting, we see those who look for truth in what they can see and hear.

Nevertheless, I must also say that "The School of Athens" does not represent all of the society that existed at the time of the Renaissance. From my observation, the painting only shows and makes comments on the society of the educated. This may be a bit lopsided since what we don't see are the other members of society: the poor, the uneducated, the sick, mentally ill, lower class or outcasts of society. The painting doesn't tell us much about those people, and we could end up thinking that Renaissance society was made up only of the educated. And, after all, society is made up of more than just educated mathematicians and philosophers.

All in all, Raphael's "The School of Athens" shows the main views that existed in Renaissance society towards the gaining of knowledge and for that, it is a great and beautiful painting. However, it does not give us a total picture of society. Despite this, I think it is a meaningful and interesting work of art that tells us much about a fascinating period of history.

Euclid and Me

If I had to identify with something or someone in Raphael's painting "The School of Athens", I would feel most comfortable with those people on the right side of the painting: those who were more rooted in observation of the real world and perception, as was Aristotle. I do not identify as well with those who were more interested in seeking heavenly or divine sources and ideals and philosophies for everything. I see the right side of the painting as representing the ideas of science - making sense of the world through what we see, similar to the way we do experiments: we first observe through our senses basing our ideas on the reality of our perception. Nevertheless, I do not see myself as Euclid himself, because Euclid had reached an extremely high level of knowledge from his observations and senses. Because I am also a student and trying to understand things around me, I would be one of the students who are surrounding Euclid, listening to him and trying to understand how his observations have led to his conclusions about geometry. Specifically, looking at the painting, there is a figure immediately to the left of Euclid. The figure is kneeling. This person seems to be a woman, although I am not certain that it is. However, assuming that it is a woman, I am impressed by this figure because it would be one of the few women that appear in this painting and it shows that women have a part to play in the gaining of knowledge and in science. Whether or not the figure is a woman, I see myself as a person who wants to learn, but, additionally, as a person who is more oriented toward drawing conclusions based on what I can take in through my senses. That is why I will always respect those who can understand the earth with a sense of reality, seeing and hearing what is all around us, and not through a search for philosophies, like those on the Plato side of the painting.