Raphael was born in Italy on April 6th, 483. April 6th is Good Friday, so his mother named her Raphael, which means angel in Italian. Raphael died on April 6, 2000 at the age of 37.
He is a precocious genius and began to accept important entrustment at a young age. 1508, Raphael, who was only 25 years old, was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II and was given a prestigious task to decorate the Pope's room. Raphael and his assistant undertook the task of decorating all four large rooms. They continued this work during the reign of Julius' successor Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, but Raphael died before the room was finished.
Athens College is painted in the first room, the wall of the Vatican's signature hall, with an arched ceiling, which is higher than a person's head.
At the center of the work are the portraits of two great ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, who represent two different schools of thought.
Plato on the left and Timio on the right are one of his dialogues. Plato thinks that there is a world of ideas above the material world, so Raphael shows it as a finger pointing to the sky. He looks like Leonardo da Vinci, a respected contemporary of Raphael.
Aristotle on the right holds his famous ethics with one finger pointing to the ground. Aristotle's view is that knowledge must be acquired through observation and experience of the material world.
Their ideas developed from two diametrically opposed starting points. In the painting, Raphael only uses two different gestures to express the different sources of western philosophy.
In the lower left corner of the above picture, Heraclitus, a philosopher who is famous as a "crying philosopher", is propped on the marble with his left hand. This character borrows the image of Michelangelo.
Surrounded by a group of eager students, one of them is holding an illustrated stone tablet in one hand and proving the geometric principle. Pythagoras, a famous philosopher and mathematician in ancient Greece.
The ancient Greek mathematician Euclid bent down to demonstrate mathematical operations with a pair of compasses, and his figure came from architect Donato Bramante.
The only two people in the whole work do not participate in any discussion, but stand quietly with their backs to the painting. Among them, this beautiful woman in white is said to be based on Raphael's lover.
The rightmost face looks out of the painting, looks directly at the audience, wears a dark beret, and the handsome man is Raphael himself.
The theme of Athens College is to eulogize the peak of ancient Greek spirit and praise the golden age of humanism. Raphael brought together the outstanding figures of western civilization and different periods in the same space, and drew the representatives of ancient Greece and Rome in one painting, as well as the outstanding artists, philosophers and scientists of Italy in the author's period.
This grand scene, numerous figures, vivid gestures and expressions, characterized by portraits, harmonious layout and unified rhythm changes, developed painting creation to the peak of the Renaissance.