The School of Athens (L'École d'Athènes, Raphael)

Také známý jako: L'École d'Athènes, L'Ecole d'Athènes, The School of Athens, Scuola di Atene

Kultura · Umění

Raphael, The School of Athens (1509-1511), fresco, Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace Vatican Museums; public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Overview

Fresco by Raphael, painted 1509-1511 for Pope Julius II in the Stanza della Segnatura of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. It shows ancient philosophers, mathematicians and scientists gathered in a great vaulted hall, with Plato and Aristotle at the centre; Leonardo and Michelangelo are thought to be portrayed as Plato and Heraclitus, and Raphael included his own portrait. It is considered one of his best-known works and the "perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the Renaissance". (Source: Wikipedia, "The School of Athens".)

Marie and this work

1881-10-10 (093.0205, Madrid): writing about painting as pure execution ("tout est dans l'exécution !"), she rejects Raphael's "sublimes vierges en carton" ("ça ne me touche pas... un sentiment et une noblesse que je respecte mais que je ne puis aimer") but excepts the fresco: "L'Ecole d'Athènes du même Raphaël, voilà qui est admirable et incomparable comme d'autres de ses compositions et surtout en gravure ou photographie." So she knows it chiefly through engravings and photographs.

Sources

Wikipedia, "The School of Athens".
Diary: 093.0205.