Raphael: Stanza Della Segnatura

The Renaissance artist Raphael (1483–1520) is considered one of the great masters of his day, and is one of the most well-regarded artists of all time. Among his many famous works is the Stanza della Segnatura. It's actually not just a single piece of art; it's actually an entire room. Raphael was commissioned to adorn the library of Pope Julius II's private office and library, and the Stanza is the result.

If you haven't heard of the Stanza della Segnatura, you may still have heard of the painting The School of Athens. It depicts the philosophers Plato and Aristotle, surrounded by other great Greek philosophers. Plato and Aristotle are each holding a book; Plato is holding the Timaeus, one of his dialogues, and Aristotle is holding his Ethics.

I remember seeing this painting years ago and sort of had the impression that it was simply a painting, framed and hanging on a wall. But that's not what it is at all. In fact, it is a wall. Raphael actually painted it to fit the contours of the room. So it goes over the doorways and fits the curvature of the walls.

But there is even more to it than that, because this room has, like most rooms, four walls, and each wall has a painting. And the one that is exactly opposite The School of Athens is called the Disputation of the Holy Sacrament. This painting has a number of biblical figures and it's even laid out like a triangle, which many think hints at the Trinity. The painting includes figures from church history, including popes such as Gregory the Great; Ambrose of Milan, who baptized Augustine; Augustine himself; and Jerome, who led the team of translators that produced the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible. Raphael even includes some medieval figures such as Dante.

In Raphael’s delightful creation, we see God at the center as the revealer of all things... Disputation of the Holy Sacrament is a counterpart to The School of Athens—there is philosophy on one side of the room and theology on the other side. But that leaves two more walls, and so, on one wall, Raphael painted representations of the arts and the sciences. He has various artists, musicians, and scientists. On the fourth wall, Raphael depicts the virtues and justice, representing ethics.

Do you see what Raphael is doing here? He is trying to present a worldview. This is more of a twentieth-century term, not one that Raphael would use, but he is presenting a comprehensive look that sees philosophy, theology, the arts, the sciences, and ethics as a unified whole. Of course, there are specialists in those fields, but in the Stella della Segnatura, they are unified.

But a room also has a ceiling, and this, I think, is the key to the painting. The ceiling is actually a depiction of God in heaven. And God is handing out books to angels, who pass them along to the four walls. God hands a book to an angel, who then passes it on to the philosophers, and God hands a book to another angel, who passes it on to the theologians, and so on with the artists, the musicians, the scientists, and the mathematicians.

The idea is that God is the source, the unifier, of all things. In Raphael's delightful creation, we see God at the center as the revealer of all things, who holds all things together in the fields of theology, church life, philosophy, the arts, music, and all other virtuous pursuits. May we look to God as the source of all wisdom, beauty, and virtue.