Raphael's Stanza della Segnatura

"Known as the "prince of painters," Raphael was the preeminent painter of Renaissance Rome, whose classical style marks some of the most enduring masterpieces of Italian Renaissance art. Of these, the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican palace has often been considered the most aesthetically perfect. Executed between 1508 and 1511 for the notoriously temperamental, but adventurous, patron of the arts, Pope Julius II, it was the commission that thrust Raphael, then a very young painter, forward into international prominence. This ingenious work features a painted ceiling, a pavement of inlaid marble, and four large frescoed walls, all orchestrated with a rich cast of famous historical figures who exemplify the various disciplines of learning - theology, philosophy, poetry and music, and the law. Joost Gaugier's study is the first to examine the elements of the Stanza della Segnatura as a philosophically integrated unity. The volume focuses on the meaning of the frescoes and accompanying decoration in light of the intellectual world of High Renaissance Rome."--Jacket.