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Read a Renaissance picture

Follow gestures and groups to read Raphael’s religious and philosophical scenes.

Read a Renaissance picture

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A pointing hand can give you a place to begin in a crowded Renaissance painting. Raphael uses gestures, buildings and groups of people to make stories legible. Try following one action through a picture before learning every name.

Earth and heaven in Room VIII

In the Crowning of the Virgin, apostles gather around a flower-filled tomb while Christ crowns Mary above. In the Madonna of Foligno, the man who paid for the painting kneels among saints. The Transfiguration brings two successive Gospel episodes into one composition. Each painting places people on earth in relation to sacred figures above, but each gives the people below a different part to play.

Thought in a painted building

The School of Athens gives ancient philosophers an imagined architectural setting. Plato and Aristotle occupy the centre, while smaller groups read, argue or study. Across the Room of the Segnatura, the Disputation gathers people around the Sacrament. The room makes philosophy and theology neighbouring subjects, each with its own arrangement of figures.

Ask where the picture belonged

The three Room VIII paintings were made for church altars. The School of Athens belongs to a palace wall programme. An altarpiece could move to a new building, while a painted wall formed part of the room around its viewers. Remembering those different uses keeps the paintings connected to the people who commissioned and first encountered them.

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Read a Renaissance picture · 1

Vatican Museums / Your next move

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Your own selection. Follow the route instructions and on-site signs between stops; custom combinations have no verified transfer time.

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