Only in the last phase, upon
Bramante's advice, did Julius call in Raphael, who was already famous. The painter was
also flanked by a choice team of " advisors ". Chronologicaly the first Stanza
to be frescoed, or rather the vault, was the Stanza della Segnatura, so-called
because this was where the court of the Segnatura met. Here Raphael painted the Disputa
or Disputation on the Sacrament, which was thus his first pictorial
work in Rome and which depicts the exaltation of the glory of the Eucharist rather than a
" dispute ". Even more famous is the fresco on the wall across from the Disputa,
the so-called School of Athens, which gathers the wise men and philosophers of
antiquity together with the " contemporary " artists and lords, in other words
the protagonists of the Renais-sance, in an imposing architectural setting where they are
all assembled around the great ancients, Plato and Aristotle. The composition of Parnassus,
which decorates the wall of the window overlooking the Belvedere, is dated 1511 (the
year is on the lintel of the win-dow). The vault of the same Stanza has medallions which
contain symbolic representations of Philosophy, Justice, Poetry, Theology, and
panels with the Fall of man, The Judgement of Solomon, A pollo and Marsyas, As-tronomy.
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| Next, chronologically speaking, is the Stanza di
Elio-doro, which furnishes an example of what might be called historical painting, for
Raphael had proposed various miraculous events which were decisive in the story of the
Church, perhaps suggested by Julius II. These included Leo I repulsing Attila, the Mass
of Bolsena, the Expul-sion of Heliodorus, the Liberation of St. Peter. These
date to the years 1512-1514, while the vault was presuma-bly frescoed by De Marcillat, who
most likely continued Raphael's ideas. |
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