Vatican: The School of Athens

Next time you visit the Vatican don't forget to visit the apartments of Julius II, which were highly decorated by Raphael, another big artist of the Renaissance period. He had the freedom to redecorate the "Stanze Vaticane" at his own pleasure, destroying the previous frescoes done by other artists. 

The most famous of all the works is the School of Athens, where Raphael represented the most famous thinkers, philosophers, astronomers of the time.... with Plato and Aristotle at the centre of the entire philosophical debate.

School of Athens by Raphael,
Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican

Plato and Aristotle (particular)
 Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican

Plato is  represented with a white beard (maybe Leonardo da Vinci???) and with his hand pointing towards the sky, the heavens, holding his Timaeus, and his strong belief in The Forms. Aristotle, instead, is represented with the palm of his hand turned down: he believed the apprehend-ship of the knowledge was through empirical observation and experience, therefore he holds a copy of his Nicomachean Ethics in his hand. 

Riconoscimenti

Per qualche giorno non mi sarà possibile entrare in questo mio spazio né entrare nei Vostri per lasciare un saluto ed un apprezzamento ai Vostri post, anzi mi devo scusare sin d'ora se ultimamente sono stata un poco "latitante".

Desidero lasciare in questa pagina tutti i miei affettuosi saluti augurandoVi una lieta settimana

---------
ed ora riprendo.....
---------

Ricordate l'evento concorso-collettiva

 "ARTE A SOMASCA"

???

Con sorpresa mi è stata  rilasciato

DIPLOMA DI SEGNALAZIONE

PER L'OPERA 

OPERA : Ricordi d'autunno

(oppure-corro su prati al sole d'autunno)

olio a spatola su tela, dim. cm. 40x30 - anno 2010

---------------

Inoltre, proprio in questi giorni, mi è stato comunicato

DALL'ASSOCIAZIONE STILE LIBERO

di  aver ottenuto il

III PREMIO ASS.

per una mia mail art

 GOCCE SOSPESE - tecnica mista su cartoncino

---------

beh...non posso essere ipocrita!

Sono contenta, anche perchè non me lo aspettavo,

 poichè le opere presenti, in entrambi i concorsi , erano davvero valide.

The Beata Ludovica Albertoni by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

When you walk along Trastevere, you are amazed by the amount of Churches surrounding the area, including Santa Cecilia and Santa Maria in Trastevere. Between all of them there is a little church, San Francesco a Ripa, far from the view of everyone, easy to reach but not so highly frequented by the tourists, because on the other side of Viale Trastevere.

Here, at the far end on the left inside, walking towards the altar you find the Cappella Altieri, for which Gian Lorenzo Bernini produced one of his latest works: the Beata Ludovica Albertoni (1671-74), a dramatic, mystic marriage and death.

Here Bernini allegorized the redeeming, fiery love of Christ’s sacred heart with the two hearts which flank Ludovica’s body like guardian figures and her burning, consuming devotion. 

During the seventeenth-century Catholic devotion, the fire of sacred love and burning devotion, death and union with the divine were seen as an extended metaphor of fire, flame and consumption. God's love was in the blessed Ludovica, who became a widow in 1506. She  joined the Franciscan Order as a tertiary and spent her family fortune on charity, exhausting her health taking care of the poor and undertaking penitential practices such as fasting. 

As always Bernini has shown his magistry and ability in representing this work, which was commissioned by Cardinal Paluzzi degli Albertoni.