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The Reading Images Project |
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The Reading Images Project |
Iconography: associations
The analysis of works of art through the study of the meanings of their images in the context of the culture in which they were made. There are three general approaches to determining iconography: 1) the function of a work and how its message is determined by its context; 2) the content or "subject" of a work, that is, what figures, forms and actions it depicts (including the narrative, if it has a narrative); 3) the symbolism of a work, both its direct use of cultural or individual symbols and the associations it might be intended to evoke within its culture.
Symbolism & Associations
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Renaissance artists had many long-standing symbol systems upon which they could draw to present an idea in "shorthand," yet the School of Athens, tends to eschew overt symbols. On the other hand, viewers were clearly intended to derive certain associations from the imagery. |
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The Renaissance audience would have been conscious of the relationships between figures. Critical to understanding the fresco is the centrality of the figures of Plato and Aristotle; they are the physical focal point of the composition, suggesting they serve as the iconographical heart of the image. The School of Athens does not represent the first time Plato and Aristotle were depicted in a Renaissance library; they, in fact, appeared in the library of Federico da Montefeltro at Urbino. But their centrality, isolation, and enframement by the architecture all ensure that here, for the first time, Plato and Aristotle dominate the image. |
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For centuries the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle had been seen as oppositions, with Plato emphasizing the world of ideas, beyond the realm of humans, and Aristotle stressing human physical experience. Just when Raphael painted this fresco, Renaissance humanists were seeking to reconcile these disparate approaches, by suggesting the two philosophers both sought understanding of divine will, albeit via different routes. Thus they appear in the School of Athens as equals - of the same stature, sharing the limelight - yet with differences in their postures. Plato points upward and rises up on his toes, indicating that he moves out of the natural world towards the divine. Aristotle's feet are firmly planted on the ground, and his hand stretches out parallel to the earth; he finds the divine within the natural world.(15) |
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