Art reflects society in various of ways. Usually everyday life is inspiration for artists for their paintings, the structure of life, in the Renaissance it was particularly human life, knowledge and understanding, architecture and the classical life then, which were the Romans and the Greeks. The people of the Renaissance learnt new ways to work on their architecture, paintings, sculptures relying on the Greeks and the Romans. Learning from the ancient texts, showing how the Greeks and Romans were more advanced at these types of art. In the painting "The School of Athens" by Raphael, shows people who were striving to gain more knowledge like Pythagoras, Aristotle, Plato and other great Greek people. All in the "school" learning from each other and listening intently. Every painting in the Renaissance had a meaning behind it, the artist had logic behind the painting and an object or a person or an animal is n0t placed in the painting just because the artist feels like it, there is a reason. In the School of Athens there are two people in the middle Plato (the one in the red and grey/white) and his apprentice Aristotle (the one in the brown and blue). Plato was a person who believed there was mathematics, something that couldn't be seen, even though it was there. While is apprentice Aristotle observed and studied the science of visable things you can touch and see. Observers have realized that in this painting everyone who is to our right of Aristotle are all scientists of somesort and everyone to the left of Plato are all people who study the unseen mathematical part of the world in depth. They all reflect the society of when the Renaissance was at it's highest peck of learning.
If I was part of Raphael's "The School of Athens" I would be both Plato and Aristotle, the two main figures in the painting. The two figures split the room in half, a mathematical side with something higher in the world and also a scientific side. To me I believe both sides, first of all I am greatful for all the science that was founded and developed at that time, for it has helped us in our world today, with all our technology. Most of the science that was found then we still use. But on Plato's end, I believe that there is something higher than us out there in the universe, that is what my culture and belief has taught me. But I sometimes find myself thinking, without the fact that says we have evolved from apes, how were we formed and what made the universe? I've always thought that the universe couldn't have just been there in the begining of time, everything has a creation, well, thats what I believe.
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