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The Reading Images Project |
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The Reading Images Project |
Setting
Works of art are often designed to be seen in a specific setting; in the case of frescoes, they are painted on the walls of particular sites. Settings affect images both from a functional and a physical perspective. The use of the space will determine the meaning and purpose of the paintings. Its layout will determine their size, shape, and arrangement. Artists take into consideration the shape and scale of the room in which they paint, the light source, entrances and exits, and other elements of design within the space.
The Setting of the School of Athens
The School of Athens was painted for the Stanza della Segnatura, one of a series of rooms in the private apartments of Pope Julius II at the Vatican. The room was originally intended to be used as a library or study; since all four walls were painted down to the floor, the bookshelves would probably have been freestanding in the middle of the room. By the mid-sixteenth century the room was used for the Tribunal of the Curia, from which its modern name (Room of the Signature) derives.
The Segnatura is not a large chamber: approximately 27 by 21 feet, and 25 feet high. The room is covered by a shallow pendentive dome that leaves the walls in a semi-circular or lunette shape. The shorter north and south walls are bisected by windows; the longer east and west walls have doors in the corners. Raphael painted the ceiling and all four walls, fitting his images into the available spaces.
The program of the room is to illustrate branches of knowledge.
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