The School of Athens Painting
Raphael's work reaches its peak with his painting The school of Athens, probably the most famous of his collection. When the spectators behold the fresco they are introduced into the Classical world and can appreciate the movement of the many characters painted. The school of Athens symbolizes the philosophy that set the grounds for the modern thinking. The master introduced the scene inside a temple of Roman inspiration, possibly following the projects of Bramante for the Vatican basilica, linking the idea of the temple of philosophy evocated by Marsilio Ficino. The figures are situated in several groups presided by the two great classic philosophers: Plato and Aristotle, representing the most important ethic doctrines of the Greek world: idealism and realism. Both characters dialogue and advance before a group of figures that form a hall. At the left Socrates conversing with a group of young people; on the first place Zeno. Over the steps Heraclites, taking Michael Angelo's figure, probably as homage to the decoration of the Sistine Chapel, Diogenes lying on the steps, Euclid with his disciples, Zoroaster and Ptolemy with the globe of the sky and earth. In those figures they represent the "Trivium" and "Quadrivium".
The vaults that dominate the building create the effect of perspective. My Renaissance needs a great thinker to represent intellectuality of our time. Even if historians would point some specific moments in time when the preoccupation seemed to have greater priority, society has never stopped concerning with humans as their first object of study and adoration. Renaissance was especially, a change in the classical art and the seek for new perspectives. Like Minerva, she was a model of wisdom and supremacy to her people. Because Renaissance means humanism, and humanism was not vogue or a phase, it is something that has always been present, more openly or more discretely, in our society. My message for the viewer would be "Renaissance was not an era: it is a quality of our world". What influenced most our society is imagination, so we would place in the background group, fiction characters from classical books. Those would need to be created, as they have no real face, but each one would have some element that would help the viewer clearly identify it. Searching for the characters that would constitute my own Renaissance made me thing about the individuals that influenced the new humanist concept of our times, the same way the Classical philosophers influenced the humanist conception that characterized the original Renaissance. During her rule the country became a world power. Pablo Picasso, who changed the look of reality. The statue of Minerva would be replaced by Queen Elizabeth I. I did not include in my group people of illustrious religious character, although I admire many of them and consider that they are eminent in our world, because Renaissance was about humanism, more than religion, so I chose people that concentrated their energy on human progress more than divine ideologies.
Common topics in this essay:
Apollo Minerva,
Queen Elizabeth,
Presper Eckert,
,
Bernhard Nobel,
Olympic Games,
Edison Renaissance,
Henri Coanda,
Plato Aristotle,
Neil Armstrong,
own renaissance,
human life,
influenced humanist,
renaissance means,
world renaissance,
olympic games,
ancient greek,
walt disney,
set grounds,
queen elizabeth,
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Acceptance Essays
