Soulscape: 1, The School of Athens - Raphael

From My Upcoming Contemplation Book: Soulscape

Art as the Epitome of Civilization

Raphael Sanzio, The School of Athens, 1509-1511, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City. Wikimedia Commons.

Humanity is a miracle. That art exists at all is a big part of that, and that it can rise to heights in such paintings as Raphael’s The School of Athens.

The painting shows a gathering of the greatest minds of ancient Greece, and figures like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, Raphael’s contemporaries of the Renaissance, cleverly integrated into the scene. Leonardo, portrayed as Plato pointing upward to the heavens, symbolizes the realm of conceptual idealism. Michelangelo appears as the brooding figure of the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus. Seated next to a block of marble and dressed in workingman’s clothes, he represents the union of industrious work with the balance of opposing forces. By blending these Renaissance luminaries with classical philosophers, Raphael bridges the wisdom of the past with the brilliance of his own time, reminding us how connecting past and present genius can inspire the high points of civilization.

When we think of what our culture is, or what other cultures past and present are, the thought is too abstract, but when we enlist the help of art the idea of civilization becomes crystallized. It becomes almost undeniably true, “Yes, the High Renaissance is Raphael’s The School of Athens!” When in real life both those periods would have had poverty, disease, and stupidity. But through art it changes the focus to what can be possible, psychologically messaging to the viewer that great things can be in store for them.

Revised: 6/19/25

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