Raphael: The Stanza Della Segnatura, Rome
by: Beck, James

Hardcover. NY, George Braziller , 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 95 pages. Oblong format. 33 color plates of the artist's fresco in the Vatican. Other b&w illustrations. Recognizing the precocious talent of Raphael, then age twenty-six, Pope Julius II commissioned the artist in 1509 to paint four monumental murals and numerous smaller scenes that gave visual form to the enlightened world of the Renaissance. Guided by the leading scholars of his day, Raphael chose themes that glorified the four branches of learning required for a general education, particularly that of a pope: Theology, Poetry, Jurisprudence, and Philosophy. The painting of the latter, perhaps best known today as "The School of Athens," shows Plato and Aristotle striding through a vast, open hallway and flanked by scientists and philosophers of the ancient world; rediscovered in the Renaissance, they hold a convention where they discuss issues that will inspire a new age. Short inscription on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.