ALEXANDER the GREAT in RAPHAEL's SCHOOL of ATHENS

ALEXANDER the GREAT in RAPHAEL's SCHOOL OF ATHENS

Raphael paints the School of Athens in the Stanza della Segnatura (the Signing Room) in the Vatican Palace between 1509-11 for Pope Julius II. In this wall painting he identifies many of the most famous philosophers in Ancient Greece and in 16th-century Rome. (See my other blog entry where identifications for those figures are given.)

One of the most curious figures is the man sprawled on the steps of the temple, reading in the sun in a simple blue tunic.

He is Diogenes, the Cynic, a philosopher who is presented by Raphael as half-clothed, since Diogenes cared little for appearances. Renowned for his truth telling, many came to ask him for his wisdom. He has often been the identification for this figure on the steps in the School of Athens, but the figure next to him, who is seen from the back and who is going up the stairs away from Diogenes is not as often identified. For me he is intimately connected to Diogenes and must be included in order to understand the philosopher on the steps can only be Diogenes. The figure going up the steps to the right is ALEXANDER THE GREAT, King of Macedonia in the 4th century B.C. and eventual ruler of the land stretching from Greece to India and Egypt. 

In Plutarch's Life of Alexander the Great he mentions an incident that takes place just when Alexander visits Athens for the first time after being crowned King of Macedonia. As a student of Aristotle, he receives the accolades of many of the great philosophers who lived in that city. But he realizes that Diogenes, who lives in Corinth, has not bothered to make the journey to meet him to pay his respects.
         Diogenes, a philosopher who espouses CYNICISM, the outward denial of all proper manners as a way of eschewing hypocrisy, spends his time in Corinth lying on the ground, and is regarded by all as a wise homeless man. Alexander travels to Corinth to find out why Diogenes has not bothered to attend him in Athens. He is told where Diogenes is lying sprawled on the ground and
walks to see the philosopher in his local habitat.
        Here is Plutarch's account of this incident:

"While Alexander stayed here (Athens,) many public ministers and philosophers came from all parts to visit him, and congratulated him on his election, but contrary to his expectation, Diogenes of Sinope, who then was living at Corinth, thought so little of him, that instead of coming to compliment him, he never so much as stirred out of the suburb called the Cranium, where Alexander found him lying along in the sun.

When Diogenes saw so much company near him, he raised himself a little, and vouchsafed to look upon Alexander; and when he kindly asked him whether he wanted anything, “Yes,”said he,”I would have you stand from between me and the sun.”  Alexander was so struck by this answer, and surprised at the greatness of the man, who had taken so little notice of him, that as he went away, he told his followers at the moroseness of the philosopher, that if he were not Alexander, he would choose to be Diogenes."

In Raphael's School of Athens, Diogenes is the man dressed in blue, lying sprawled on the steps of the temple of the philosophers. Raphael shows him reading as he leans, raised up on his right elbow. He looks down as if in deep thought. He has just told Alexander, "You are blocking my sun."

Next to this figure is another elegant man seen from the back and dressed in white robes with golden hair:

This is Alexander the Great, who is reacting to Diogenes' request for him to step out of his sun.

The preparatory drawing on the right shows Raphael drawing the left hand twice in order to get the right effect. The step and the right leg and ankle are drawn in foreshortening from the back; even the drawing has a shadow falling on the step to convey the idea that Alexander had been in the way of Diogenes' sunlight. The drawing also includes the figure to whom Alexander addresses his surprise at Diogenes' reply.

We don't see Alexander's face. He is not a great PHILOSOPHER and as such, is not really appropriate for this painting, however, the anecdote about him says so much about DIOGENES, that Raphael cannot help but include him. ALEXANDER was said to be a handsome, blond man, and so Raphael also wants to set him in the company because of his beauty.

We see only Alexander's beautiful blond locks flowing down the back of his neck as they do in the coin image of him and in his statue busts:

Diogenes, on the other hand, is a philosopher and is the ultimate REALIST - He is not impressed with Alexander's youth, his wealth, or his royalty. He was enjoying the warmth of the sun and using the light of the sun to read. Alexander stood above him, blocking the sunlight, so Diogenes, as a practical man, asks him to move away. Alexander, in Raphael's version, says to the fellow above him on the step, "Do you believe this guy? Did you just hear what he said to me?" This fellow, dark-haired, is only there as a foil for Alexander's response to Diogenes.

The dark-haired fellow gestures toward Aristotle as if the great teacher could explain Diogenes' behavior.

 

What is most telling in Raphael's version, is the shadow cast by the body of Alexander. It falls over the step between Alexander's left foot and Diogenes' leg, with another shadow cast from Alexander's right foot to Diogenes' left foot.

Alexander's greatness has been reduced to a shadow by the philosopher who sees through pretense. Raphael does not give Alexander a crown in the finished painting.  (Ptolemy, in the School of Athens, by contrast, has a crown, even though the geographer/philosopher was never a king; Raphael is taking his cue, in that instance, from the image of Ptolemy in the studiolo in Urbino, his home town, where Ptolemy has a crown because Ptolemy was confused with the great Egyptian dynastic kings.)

 

Diogenes' words have made a peon of a king, have shown him to be just a man under the sun, like any other man, so Raphael understands the meaning of the Plutarch story in the context of all the great philosophers set within the scene. True wisdom for Diogenes did not reside in the power of politics or wealth; it resided in self-knowledge and humility, a lesson which Alexander accepts, as at the end of the story, Plutarch recounts how Alexander tells the members of his entourage, that if he were not to be Alexander the Great, he would choose to be Diogenes, showing that he acknowledges the lesson he has been given by the philosopher/cynic.

Before Raphael painted the figure of Michelangelo (after seeing his Sistine ceiling frescoes) into the foreground, Diogenes was singled out as the only person on the steps facing the viewer in the painting. He was given an important location just below the two central characters of Plato and Aristotle. He reposes on the right side of the central vertical in the painting, however, so he is associated with the REALISTS, and he is a REALIST, par excellence.

He takes no notice of the King on the steps next to him, a king who conquers an empire. Nor does he pay attention to the other philosophers gathered in the temple, all of the brilliant minds from ancient history. He is lost in thought, in the life of the mind, and is able to ignore the rest of the commotion around him.

He does not engage in petty academics; he is content to view life from the lowest level; he literally does not stand on ceremony, in English. In Italian, "non fa cerimonie."

Alexander, Raphael knows, is a wiser king after his encounter with Diogenes on the steps of the temple. And Raphael, himself, takes a humble place in his painted self-portrait in the School of Athens, behind the figure of Sodoma, the painter whose work he had had to cover over in order to complete his commission; he reverses the power and has Sodoma cover over him.

He, like Alexander, has learned the lesson of Diogenes the Cynic. Ever the diplomat, Raphael looks out at us with the wisdom of the ages, absorbed through paint.