Amuze Art Lecture #9: The School of Athens by Raphael

The ninth Amuze Art Lecture discusses in 2 minutes arguably the most famous fresco painted by Raphael. The School of Athens is painted on the wall of the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican Museums. The room is part of the Raphael Rooms and the Stanza della Segnatura was designed to function as the library of Pope Julius II. The idea was to organize the books of the pope in four categories: law, philosophy, poetry, and theology. The fresco of the School of Athens is full of ancient philosophers and thus represents the philosophy theme.

The School of Athens contains a total of 58 philosophers. Not all of them are from Athens (as the title suggests), and they did not live at the same time. They include famous philosophers like Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. But Raphael also hid a self-portrait of himself in this enormous fresco. There is much more to tell about this fresco than what would fit in a two-minute video, but we have done our best to tell you a few interesting things to start.

​The School of Athens is also part of the Highlights Tour of the Vatican Museums available in the Amuze app (Android and iOS). If you are interested in more two-minute art lectures, you can check out our YouTube channel or click directly on the link to one of our earlier videos:

• #8: The Artist's Studio by Gustave Courbet
• #7: The Wedding at Cana by Paolo Veronese

• #6: Daniel in the Lions' Den by Peter Paul Rubens
• #5 The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David
• #4: Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci
• #3 Irises by Vincent van Gogh
• #2 Rokeby Venus by Diego Velázquez
• #1 Portrait of a Girl Dressed in Blue by Johannes Verspronck

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Cheers, Eelco