The School Of Athens by Raphael (c.1508-11) – Flashcards
Unlock all answers in this set
Unlock answersquestion
What were two major artistic innovations of the Renaissance that greatly aided naturalistic art?
answer
Atmospheric and Linear Perspective
question
Who invented linear perspective?
answer
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446)
question
What was Brunelleschi inspired by?
answer
Study of ancient texts, especially Euclid and Ptolemy describing mathematical laws.
question
What are the elements of linear perspective?
answer
Horizon Line, Vanishing point, Orthogonal lines
question
How did Brunelleschi believe linear perspective could be structured?
answer
Through using mathematical systems to determine relative scale of objects within an image and organize them properly
question
What does the horizon line do?
answer
Mark location of horizon
question
What is located on the horizon line?
answer
Vanishing Point
question
What is the vanishing point?
answer
The ideal point of view when looking at the scene
question
What are orthogonal lines?
answer
Lines that stretch from edges of picture to the vanishing point
question
When did Brunelleschi demonstrate his linear perspective idea?
answer
In 1420
question
What is the purpose of linear perspective?
answer
Recreate 3D space on a 2D surface
question
What did Brunelleschi paint to demonstrate linear perspective?
answer
Piazza of the Baptistery of Florence
question
How did Brunelleschi paint the Baptistery with linear perspective?
answer
Drilled hole at the vanishing point, positioned viewer at same location within the piazza. Viewer holds up painting, faces Baptistery, looked through drilled hole at back. Mirror was held in front of painting, and painting was reflected in mirror. Viewer could then drop painting and see actual piazza.
question
Who systematized linear perspective?
answer
Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72)
question
What text did Alberti write detailing linear perspective?
answer
On Painting (1436)
question
What is atmospheric perspective?
answer
Suggesting depth in a painting by painting distant objects in softer focus, with less detail and paler colors
question
Why is the softer focus in atmospheric perspective recreate actual views of distant areas?
answer
Light scatters through particles in the air, such as smoke an water vapor, thus distorting far away objects
question
What kinds of paintings is atmospheric perspective especially effective in?
answer
Landscape views
question
How is atmospheric perspective compared to linear perspective?
answer
Less precise, subtler
question
What kinds of works exhibited atmospheric perspective?
answer
Ancient frescos, landscapes from Pompeii, Northern Renaissance in 15th century
question
What is Fresco?
answer
Painting where artist paints onto wet plaster wall
question
Why is fresco durable?
answer
Painting dries into the wall with the plaster
question
What is an early example of Fresco?
answer
Palace at Knossos on the island of Crete
question
Where can frescos be found historically?
answer
Roman architecture, ancient caves, palaces, and temples in India and Mexico
question
Where can frescos be found in more modern times?
answer
Mexican Muralists and American Artists working for the Works Progress Administration in 1920s and 30s.
question
What does fresco mean in Italian?
answer
Fresh
question
What is another name for true fresco?
answer
Buon fresco
question
What is the first step in buon fresco?
answer
Wall plastered, artist sketches image which is then transferred to the wall
question
How is the sketch transferred to the wall in fresco?
answer
Bag of chalk/ash hit along drawing, leaving line of dots on wall that serve as a guide
question
What is spolvero?
answer
Bag of chalk/ash that creates line of dots for guide in fresco
question
What is done each day before painting in fresco?
answer
Thin layer of wet lime plaster applied
question
What is the intonaco?
answer
The layer of plaster applied daily before painting
question
What is the giornata?
answer
The "day's work"; the area that that the artist will work on that day
question
What is a major challenge with fresco?
answer
Must finish painting before plaster dries, or will have to scrape clean area and restart.
question
What is fresco a secco?
answer
Dry fresco, painting onto dry plaster wall
question
When was Raphael born?
answer
April 6/March 28, 1483
question
What did Raphael's father do?
answer
Painter in court of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino
question
When and where did Raphael's formal artistic career begin?
answer
At age twelve in workshop of Perugino.
question
Why did Raphael leave Urbino in 1504?
answer
To work in Florence, where he painted his famous Virgin and Child images and received commissions for altar paintings and portraits
question
When did Pope Julius II call Raphael to work for him in Rome?
answer
1508
question
What did the Pope want Raphael to do?
answer
Decorate his private apartments at the Vatican
question
What other professions did Raphael have?
answer
Architect, designed churches, mansions, palaces, tapestry, drawing, printmaking
question
Who did Raphael succeed as chief architect of the Vatican in 1514?
answer
Donato Bramante
question
How did Raphael die?
answer
Became sick in late March of 1520, died 15 days later on April 6th. 37 years old
question
When did Pope Julius rule the church?
answer
1503-1513
question
When did the Pope move his private quarters to new rooms ?
answer
November 1507
question
Under who did the private quarters' decoration continue?
answer
Leo X, Julius' successor in 1513
question
When was Raphael's contribution to the private rooms finished?
answer
1524, after his own death in 1520
question
What is the room that the School of Athens in known as?
answer
Stanza della Segnatura
question
What did the Pope do in the Stana della Segnatura?
answer
Sign important documents
question
What had the room become by the 1500s?
answer
Julius' personal library
question
How did Julius organize his books?
answer
4 categories, summing up Western learning.
question
What frescos were on the larger walls?
answer
Philosophy and Theology
question
What frescos were on the shorter walls?
answer
Poetry and Law
question
What are the modern names of the wall paintings?
answer
Law-Jurisprudence, Poetry-Parnassus, Theology-The Disputa, Philosophy-School of Athens
question
What is common about all the frescos in the Segnatura?
answer
Present scenes based on Famous Men (Uomini famosi)
question
What is the Famous Men prototype?
answer
Echoes contemporary sacra conversazione (Sacred conversation) altarpieces, a group of important individuals within a unified space
question
What are 2 examples of Famous Men prototypes that influenced Raphael?
answer
Duke of Urbino's Studiolo, and Collegio del Cambio in Perugia
question
What did Raphael do in Perugia?
answer
Help paint with Perugino
question
What does the School of Athens illustrate?
answer
All the known philosophers and scientists of the ancient world
question
Describe the architectural space of the painting.
answer
3 massive, coffered barrel vaults that echo the baths and bascilicas in Rome, plaza decorated with classical statuary including Apollo and Athena (Art and Wisdom Gods)
question
How does Raphael include atmospheric perspective and linear perspective in The School of Athens?
answer
Orthogonal lines run through vaulting and stonework, gradual lightening of blue in sky as space recedes.
question
Which philosophers are centered in the painting?
answer
Plato and Aristotle
question
Where is the vanishing point of the composition?
answer
Above Plato and Aristotle's heads
question
Describe Plato's appearance
answer
Left side, bald and long gray beard. Holds Timaeus, his book, in left hand, points upward with right
question
Describe Aristotle's appearance
answer
Darker hair and beard, holds Ethics, his book, in left hand, and gestures, hand flattened and palm downward, with his right
question
What is the relationship between Plato and Aristotle?
answer
Divergent perspectives, one heavily and one worldly
question
How are the thinkers in the painting classified?
answer
Those concerned with the mysteries transcending the world on Plato's side (left), those concerned with nature and affairs of men with Aristotle (right)
question
Where is Socrates located and what is he doing?
answer
In a group at the base of Apollo statue, ticking points off fingers as he defends an argument-Socratic method of learning
question
Where is Euclid located and what is he doing?
answer
Right foreground, holding calipers and demonstrating theorem for group of students, each with a face corresponding to a different understanding of the process
question
Where is Pythagoras located and what is he doing?
answer
Seated and writing at lower left while a young figure holds up a harmonic scale
question
Where is Diogenes located and what is he doing?
answer
Sprawled on steps toward center of painting
question
What is an important aspect of the painting in relation to Raphael's contemporaries?
answer
He included his contemporaries in the painting.
question
Who else could Euclid be?
answer
Architect Bramante
question
Who could the character in the foreground be, who rests his head on hand in the pose of melancholy?
answer
Michelangelo, in the guise of the philosopher Heraclitus
question
Where is Raphael himself located?
answer
At the extreme right, looking directly at the viewer.
