The School of Athens - A Renaissance View of The Creators of Western Civilization

 

THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS

By 

The Cultural Tutor

The School of Athens, created by Raphael in 1511, is one of the world's most famous paintings.

But who are all these people in it?

1) Heraclitus (535-475 BC) Pre-Socratic philosopher whose work only survives as "Fragments." These have long given him an aura of mysterious wisdom. Here portrayed as Michelangelo (1475-1564) Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, and architect, best known for his statue of David.

2)Euclid (4th-3rd century BC) The founder of geometry. His work "The Elements" was a standard maths textbook for over 2,000 years. Portrayed as Bramante (1444-1515) Italian architect who brought the Renaissance style to Rome and Milan. He helped design St. Peter's Basilica.

3)Anaximander (610-546 BC) Important pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus. The first philosopher known to have written down his studies, he was also an early scientific thinker whose ideas influenced geometry, geography, and astronomy.

4)Left: Aeschines (389–314 BC) Athenian soldier, statesmen, and orator. Listed in the Alexandrian Canon as one of the 10 Attic Orators - the greatest speakers of classical Athens.

Right: Socrates (470–399 BC) The godfather of Western philosophy.

5)Plato (424–347 BC) Second founder of Western philosophy. Student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle. He started the Academy: the first higher educational institution in the West. Portrayed as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) The ultimate Renaissance man.

6) Left: Pythagoras (570-495 BC) Incalculably important philosopher who contributed to mathematics, ethics, music, metaphysics, and more.

Right: Archimedes (287-212 BC) Inventor, engineer, physicist, astronomer, genuine genius, and the greatest ancient mathematician.

7) Diogenes (412-323 BC) Ultimate Cynic philosopher. He begged for a living, sabotaged Plato's lectures, and made fun of Alexander the Great (to his face). He lived in conscious protest against the perceived hypocracies, trivialities, and pretensions of his age.

8) Parmenides (6th-5th centuries BC) The founder of ontology, i.e. the branch of philosophy that considers existence and reality.

9) Left (with helmet): Alcibiades (450–404 BC) Controversial Athenian general, statesmen, democratic leader, and trouble-maker; both a hero and a villain, but a hero in the end.

Right (with hat): Antisthenes (446–366 BC) The founder of Cynic philosophy, pupil of Socrates.

10) Epicurus (446-366 BC) Philosopher and founder of Epicureanism, an alternative to Platonism. His teachings focussed on the way to achieve human contentment, though this has sometimes been misrepresented as a sort of materialistic hedonism.

11) Carneades (214–129 BC) A founder of Skepticism. He reacted against the dogmatic adherents of Stoicism and Epicureanism by questioning human ability to ascertain truth at all.

12) Aristotle (384–322 BC) Impossible to summarise other than by saying he has influenced every aspect of Western culture and philosophy.

13) Left: Raphael himself, here portraying Apelles, a 4th century BC Greek painter and the most celebrated master of Antquity.

Right: Perhaps Il Sodoma (1477-1549) an Italian Renaissance painter, here portraying Protogenes, a contemporary of Apelles.

15) Zeno of Citium (334-262 BC) The founder of Stoic philosophy.

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SEE ALSO:

THE MEDICI : Godfathers of The Renaissance