A History of European Art

Lecture 21: The High Renaissance—Raphael

including the actual space of the room in the drama, something that had a

precedent in ancient painting.

When Raphael painted Galatea, he had already completed some of the major

monumental frescoes of the Renaissance in the papal apartments of the

Vatican. Among these, the most famous is the School of Athens (c. 1510–

1511) in the Stanza della Segnatura. The room that houses this painting takes

its name, Segnatura (“signature”), from its later function as a chamber of

the papal council where the pope signed

Church regulations. When decorated, it was

Julius II’s private library, which explains

the subjects of its principal decorations, two

frescoes devoted to theology and philosophy.

The one representing philosophy is called

the School of Athens, but the name was not

associated with it until the 18th century.

The wall of the painting is designed as a great

semicircle. Raphael may have taken his cue

from this sweeping curve to design within

it an architectural space dominated by a

great barrel vault. This barrel vault, together

with the domed space perceived beyond it,

is probably a reÀ ection of St. Peter’s Basilica, then under construction to

replace the ancient Constantinian basilica. The new St. Peter’s was a gigantic

structure designed by Donato Bramante, who may have helped Raphael

design the setting for this painting.

The ¿ gures are numerous, and although some are “extras,” others are intended

as historic personages or portraits of living subjects or both. The group in the

right foreground includes the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid bending

over to demonstrate a geometric theorem. Raphael gives Euclid the features

of Bramante. In the left foreground group, the half-kneeling, half-seated

¿ gure represents Pythagoras, putting down his proportional system. To the

right of him, a ¿ gure props a book on his knee; this is the ¿ gure that Raphael

reworked in the fresco of Galatea. The bearded man seated alone, leaning on

a block of marble and writing down his ideas, is Michelangelo. His pose is

Raphael had designed

the structure of the

School of Athens to

epitomize rational

control, an ordered

composition centered

on a pair of intellectual

giants from the

Classical world.