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Heraclitus, in the guise of Michelangelo
born at Ephesus, late 6th century, BCE
While Raphael worked on this fresco, Michelangelo
was a few rooms away frescoing the Sistine Chapel cieling.
After Raphael glimpsed the cieling (the scaffolding
was temporarily removed in 1510), he realized the
necessity of adding Michelangelo to the ranks of
Leonardo (Plato) and Bramante (Euclid) as masters of art in the guise
of masters of philosophy. |
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Roll over The School of Athens to see what it would have looked like had Raphael not seen the Sistine Chapel Ceiling (in progress) while he worked on this fresco.
Below, left, the cartoon for the School of Athens, showing that the figure of Heraclitus (in the foreground) was an afterthought, and not part of Raphael's original composition.
I had the pleasure of seeing this actual cartoon at the spectacular Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan (May '06) - its the size of a movie screen, and not quite this dark. Amazing. |
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