Mitchell Becker and Raja Muthyam
The artwork we choose to analyze is the painting “The School of Athens” by Raphael. We felt this was a work of art because it is one of the most famous painting in the world and we were aware that it was painted in a grandiose way for people to awe upon it. The copy of this painting is in Marcil 3rd floor, but it was smaller than the original, but it had the same inspiring message of the painter. Most of the time we walk past it on our way to class, and don’t usually look at it. When we encountered the painting, we knew the history behind the painting that it was some sort of school and that it was painted during the Renaissance, which was the time when there was this great intellectual awakening. When we encountered the painting, we were surprised with the way Raphael drew this with extreme detail. The immense hall of the school, as compared to the people, was, we thought, to show the variety of ideas that are inside it from humanities to sciences. Upon closer examination, we realized that people in the middle were much more vibrantly dressed and more detailed than the people on the sides and we thought that maybe, Raphael painted the more important people, as he saw it, in the middle and he transitioned to the less important people.
To us, this work represents how knowledge should be gained. As portrayed by Raphael, knowledge should be shared and discussed with each other, so that the group has a strong foundation of the learning. In addition, debates and arguments further the learning process and helps to implant it in the memory. This artwork is relevant to our lives because we go to this university to learn sciences, as well as the humanities and these ideas are portrayed in this painting. We learn through class discussions, arguments, and debates to clarify any doubts and further our knowledge and we think that these ideas of learning are at the core of this painting and it is how Raphael wanted learning to take place.
After our analysis on the artwork, we interviewed a person in the hallway. The first question we asked was “why do you think the copy of the painting is here?”. She said that “it could represent the model of teaching of UNE”, because UNE is a university that is mainly based on science program which encourages learning through discussion and debates. It is show how the core values of the university are represented in this painting. In addition, she said that, “I think that the middle figures are supposed to be Aristotle and Plato”, which through later research is correct and the painting is placed in the hall to emphasize their ideals of learning through the intersections of philosophy, art, and sciences.
Initially, our reaction and the reaction of the third person we interviewed was that this painting looked sophisticated and old. It was interesting, and the bold colors drew our attention to the center where Aristotle and Plato are standing. The person we interviewed put it like this, “I know that the most important people are in the middle, because they are standing separate from the rest of the group, in the middle, with the most bold colors”. Looking back at the painting after some time, we feel like we have a better appreciation for it. There is so much going on in the painting that it is hard to take it all in on the first glance. This has caused us to reconsider how we view art. On first glance art may seem not as exciting as other things that try to grab our attention, but now we can see that it deserves a second look.
Works Cited
Limoges, Kori. Personal Interview. 26 March 2018.
