Philosophy

In 1508 Pope Julius II handed a room of his private apartments to a painter barely 25 years old. It was meant to be his library, and Raphael began at the top, on the ceiling. This round panel is Philosophy, shown as a woman on a throne of clouds. She holds two books, one for natural philosophy and one for moral, and her gown shifts through four colours for the four elements the ancients believed made up the world. Two small figures beside her carry a tablet reading Causarum Cognitio, the knowledge of causes. Directly below her, on the wall, Raphael would soon paint the gathering of ancient thinkers now known as the School of Athens.