Reading The School of Athens

The School of Athens is a large fresco decorating the private library of Pope Julius II. Its purpose is to provide an appropriate setting for the pope's humanist studies by reflecting an idealized notion of the grandeur of the pursuit of human knowledge and to honor the Catholic Church by placing that quest for knowledge within the context of Christian belief.

 Raphael's iconographic and stylistic choices make the ideality of the scene evident. The best minds from Antiquity - the greatest period in history according to Renaissance thought - are shown engaged in profound discussions in a grandiose setting. Geometry, clarity, focus, and balance define a world of great dignity. Graceful, serious figures, who are intently involved in intellectual pursuits, suggest nobility.

At the same time the image is convincingly naturalistic. The setting has the scale, three-dimensionality, and lighting of a real space, while the figures are individualized in both form and affect and display believable bodies in credible poses. The message, then, becomes one that is central to Renaissance thought: human beings have the potential to achieve greatness.