Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T20:45:19.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Raphael's Platonic Vision

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2020

JOHN BIGELOW Open the ORCID record for JOHN BIGELOW [Opens in a new window]  and
MARTIN LECKEY Open the ORCID record for MARTIN LECKEY [Opens in a new window]
JOHN BIGELOW
Affiliation:
MONASH UNIVERSITYjohn.bigelow@monash.edu
MARTIN LECKEY
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNEmjleckey@unimelb.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The four frescoes by Raphael in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican Museum visually embody close approximations of several numerical ratios that are of deep significance in the material grounding of musical harmonies in the physics of natural harmonics. Of special significance is the Pythagorean musical frequency ratio of 9:8, the (discordant) whole tone interval, which in Plato's Timaeus is called the epogdoôn (‘and an eighth’).

Keywords

phil of artphil of musicancient philRenaissance philPlato
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the American Philosophical Association , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , Winter 2020 , pp. 410 - 430
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © American Philosophical Association 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bellori, Giovanni Pietro. (1695) Descrizzione delle quattro imagini dipinte da Rafaelle d'Urbino nelle camere del Palazzo Apostolico Vaticano. Rome: Giacomo Komarek.Google Scholar
Bellori, Giovanni Pietro. [1751] (1997) ‘The Image of “The Ancient Gymnasium of Athens”, or “Philosophy”’. Translated by Alice Wohl. In Hall, Marcia (ed.), Raphael's ‘School of Athens’ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 48–56.Google Scholar
Bigelow, John. (2018) ‘Shakespeare's Macro-sonnets’. PhD diss., Monash University.Google Scholar
Bigelow, John. (2019a) ‘Music, Mystique and Shakespeare's Sonnets’. Ideas and Ideals, 11, 11–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bigelow, John. (2019b) ‘Discordant Notes on Raphael's Slate’. Ideas and Ideals, 11, 32–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruschini, Enrico. (2004) Masterpieces of the Vatican. Vatican City: Edizioni Musei Vaticani.Google Scholar
Chastel, André. (1959) Art et humanisme à Florence au temps de Laurent le Magnifique: études sur la Renaissance et l'humanisme platonicien. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Cocke, Richard. (2004) Raphael: Raffaello Sanzio. London: Chaucer Press.Google Scholar
Dawkins, Richard. (1976) The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ficino, Marsilio. [1494] (2010) All Things Natural: Ficino on Plato's ‘Timaeus’. Translated by Farndell, Arthur. London: Shepheard-Walwyn.Google Scholar
Gaffurio, Franchino. [1496] (1993) The Theory of Music. Translated by Walter Kurt Kreyszig. Edited by Palisca, Claude V.. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Galis, Frietson. (1999) ‘Why Do Almost All Mammals Have Seven Cervical Vertebrae? Developmental Constraints, Hox Genes and Cancer’. Journal of Experimental Zoology, 285, 19–26.3.0.CO;2-Z>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hall, Marcia. (1997) ‘Introduction’. In Marcia Hall (ed.), Raphael's ‘School of Athens’ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1–47.Google Scholar
Kepler, Johannes. [1619] (1997) The Harmony of the World. Translated by Aiton, E. J., Duncan, A. M., and Field, J. V.. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.Google Scholar
Lindley, Mark. (1974) ‘Early 16th-Century Keyboard Temperaments’. Musica Disciplina, 28, 129–51.Google Scholar
Monteverdi, Claudio. [1607] (2002) L'Orfeo. Libretto by Alessandro Striggio. Orchestra and Chorus of La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Le Concert des Nations, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona. Jordi Savall. With Furio Zanasi, Arianna Savall, Montserrat Figueras, Sara Mingardo, et al. Recorded 2002. Libretto parallel text translated by Alia Vox. Opus Arte OA0843D, DVD.Google Scholar
Mossakowski, Stanisław. (1968) ‘Raphael's “St. Cecilia”. An Iconographical Study’. Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 31, 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Most, Glenn W. (1996) ‘Reading Raphael: “The School of Athens” and Its Pre-text’. Critical Inquiry, 23, 145–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moyer, Ann E. (1992) Musica Scientia: Musical Scholarship in the Italian Renaissance. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naumann, Emil. (1879) ‘Erklärung der Musiktafel in Raffael's “Schule von Athen”’. Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst, 14, 1–14.Google Scholar
Passavant, Johann David. (1872) Raphael of Urbino and His Father Giovanni Santi. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Plato. (1997) Plato: Complete Works. Edited by Cooper, John M.. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Proclus. (2009) Commentary on Plato's “Timaeus,” Vol. 4, Book 3, Part 2, Proclus on the World Soul. Translated by Baltzly, Dirk. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Quinlan-McGrath, Mary. (2016) ‘Raphael's “School of Athens”: “Theologians Reconciling Philosophy and Astrology”’. Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, 61, 159–91.Google Scholar
Rowland, Ingrid. (1997) ‘The Intellectual Background of the School of Athens: Tracking Divine Wisdom in the Rome of Julius II’. In Hall, Marcia (ed.), Raphael's ‘School of Athens’ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 131–70.Google Scholar
Schlick, Arnolt. [1511] (1980) Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten (Mainz 1511). Facsimile rprt. Translated by Barber, Elizabeth Berry. Buren: Knuft.Google Scholar
Scott, Walter. [1814] (1972) Waverley. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Smith, Anne. (2011) The Performance of 16th-Century Music: Learning from the Theorists. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Talvacchia, Bette. (2007) Raphael. London: Phaidon.Google Scholar
Vasari, Giorgio. (1965) The Lives of the Artists. Translated by Bull, George. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar