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How Does Raphael Create A Sense Of Balance In The School Of Athens

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How Does Raphael Create A Sense Of Balance In The School Of Athens
What work of art combines precision, detail, and philosophical ideas all in one painting? Raphael’s painting of “the school of Athens” does all that with his depiction of many of the greatest thinkers and philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Epicurus, and many more. The painting was painted between 1509 and 1511 during the High Renaissance art period, a period in which artist are creating works with more balance and are characterized to be having a burst of creativity, and is a fresco painting using oil paint as its medium. Raphael uses a few different techniques to create a sense of balance in “the school of Athens”, such as linear perspective and foreshortening. Those both assist in creating the illusion of depth in his painting …show more content…
The most evident element he uses is balance. He uses a combination of symmetric design when painting the stage and the arches in the painting and asymmetric design when painting the people. The combination of asymmetry and symmetry help to create the balance in the painting and makes the people stand out more in comparison to the background. However, balance is not the only element of design Raphael uses in “The School of Athens”. He also uses emphasis by creating a focal point in the center of the painting where Plato and Aristotle are standing. This is there to draw attention to them since they are the more well-known and influential teachers of philosophy. In addition to those elements, another aspect of the painting that is not technically element of design by definition is color. Raphael primarily used warm colors but of course had cool colors in the painting as well to create a balance. Most of the color were not very bright and were lightened. He managed to use colors that were primary, secondary, and intermediate hues allowing for a variety of colors to be on the painting making it more interesting to look at, drawing the observers attention in more. These elements together make up the painting and add to the visual appeal of the

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