And here we are at the second part with an in-depth look at Raphael 's School of Athens, the fresco in the Stanza della Segnatura at the Vatican Museums in Rome which, let me tell you, alone is worth the trip to the Eternal City. Without hesitation, your tour guide in Rome today focuses on the central point of the fresco, where our gaze is immediately guided, thanks to the use of perspective and more. The entire fresco, in fact, revolves around the two greatest exponents of ancient philosophy and wisdom: Plato and Aristotle. Let's look at them better.

The two are exactly at the center of the composition, occupying that central position that our gaze naturally seeks. Plato, with his long beard and purple and pink robes, and Aristotle with that sky blue dress seem to converse and dialogue, walking like friends. They almost seem to want to come towards us, observers and disciples ready to make their knowledge ours. In reality, however, what takes place between the two is a sort of silent battle, a battle which, despite everything, is the basis of our knowledge. In fact, the two philosophers and teachers absolutely did not have the same vision of things and the world, having partly very different theses. Plato, for example, holds his Timaeus in his hand, a text used by Renaissance philosophers and sages as a basis for understanding the master's thought (and also to give rise to the new Neoplatonic philosophy which, five centuries ago, aimed to bring the thought into line with Christian with the ancient one). It will be precisely those men, scholars from the court of Pope Julius II, who supported Raphael suggesting him what to wear and what not to wear. In his Timaeus, Plato shows us what his World of Ideas is, that celestial, immortal, immutable, incorruptible and eternal reality to which all of us, and our souls in particular, aspire. Aristotle, on the other hand, holds a text in his hand in which he expressly criticizes Plato's vision. For Aristotle, in fact, it is the real and tangible world that conveys our thoughts. That world which, even through simple observation and our senses, can reveal many things to us. This diatribe, this different vision and these different ideas are expressed not in words, but through gestures and colors. Just as Plato points to the sky with his finger, so Aristotle points the palm of his hand downwards. Just as Plato is depicted as an old man with a long beard, so Aristotle is young and full of life. Raphael managed, in a few brushstrokes and by inserting the two just below the main arch, to condense all the knowledge and spirit of classical philosophy, from which the Renaissance, in all its forms, drew heavily.

Obviously this is a summary of the knowledge of Plato and Aristotle, but it is a way to understand how Raphael wanted to conceive, and almost condense, the teaching of those who were taken as a model of human knowledge. After all, the room in which Raphael's School is located was also a library, let's not forget it, therefore the place designated for preserving human knowledge. In the third part of this in-depth study we will go further, we will see the entire Raphaelesque composition, the other characters present in the fresco, having a total overview of a timeless masterpiece, here at the Vatican Museums.