Raphael’s global philosophy

Raphael’s fresco of Philosophy was painted in about 1510 in what was then Pope Julius II’s library (fig. 1). Since an authoritative description was offered in 1695 it has erroneously been called The School of Athens, but in fact it shows philosophers from different lands and schools (and times) conversing in clusters of philosophical inquiry. Of the figures that are more or less identifiable, Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle were Greek, though not all from Athens; Diogenes was from Asia Minor; Archimedes was from Sicily; and Ptolemy was Egyptian. The turbaned figure behind Pythagoras is often identified as Averroes, a Muslim from Córdoba. And though we may not agree that the figure holding the celestial globe is Zoroaster, as Vasari says, it is telling that he believed a Persian philosopher belonged in the assembly. From a European point of view, the fresco attempted a global sweep of philosophical wisdom. Although this article focuses on the Philosophy fresco, it proceeds from the premise that it is impossible to understand any element in isolation from the decorations throughout the room as a whole. I propose that the new world explorations were essential to the conceptualization and design of Raphael’s Philosophy fresco and its relation to the room it decorates. A basic feature of the fresco’s conception was a spherical understanding of the nature of philosophical inquiry,