This was commissioned by Pope Julius II for the papal apartments. The pope was a powerful patron of the arts and held a competition to select the artist to do the frescos for the papal apartments at the Vatican. This particular fresco is in the Stanza della Segnatura or papal library. Raphael beat out prominent artists including his mentor and finished the fresco when he was only 27 years old. The Stanza della Signatura contains a sequence of Raphael’s best work in which the “School of Athens” is a part of. Each wall was meant to represent different areas of thinking, thus the “School of Athens” is known for the area of “Philosophy.” It is set in Ancient Greece and symbolizes the …show more content…
They are each backed by colossal Greco-Roman style statues that support their beliefs. Plato in pointing up to heavens while Aristotle has his arm extended palm down showing his empiricist principles. The colossal statue that sits left of Plato is Apollo the god of sun, poetry and art, while the statue right of Aristotle is Athena the goddess of wisdom. On Plato’s side are ancient philosophers while Aristotle’s side includes ancient scientists and mathematicians. This shows their differing opinions and inspiration from heaven to the material world. The other figures and philosophers in this work include Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid and so many