Page 55 - Beholding Liberty!

PERISTYLE
I.1.13
The School of Athens
Tapestry based on Raphael’s original fresco in the Vatican Rooms (1509-11)
The Gobelins factory, atelier of Audran’s son, weave between 1779 and 1785, 8th version
high warp, wool, silk
painted cartoon (large-scale template of the tapestry’s execution, oil on canvas) by Louis II de Boullogne (1654-1733). Paris, Mobilier national
THE FRESCO OF THE ATHENS SCHOOL
was created between 1508 and 1511 as the cen- tral theme of the apartment of Pope Julius II in the Vatican, before being housed in it his pri- vate library, which was later called the Signature Chamber (Stanza della Segnatura). Since the mo- ment of its creation, this group of works painted by Raphael and his studio acquired great prestige in the West; and the works by this Italian artist became objects of admiration, and were regarded in France, in the second half of the 17th centu- ry, as absolute works to be imitated. Thus, from the founding of the French Academy, in Rome in 1666, the fellows undertook to prepare very pre- cise copies of the frescos. These copies, painted in oil on canvas, were executed with the help of fab- rics placed right on top of the frescoes, permitting the retention of their authentic magnificence; they were then sent to Paris.
A few years later, Louvois, a trustee of buildings, arts and structures, who followed Colbert, drew an idea from his predecessor: to transfer famous Re- naissance works of painting to tapestries. Thus, in 1683 he created, in the famous workshop of the Collection of Crown Furniture, of the Gobelins family, the first weaving of a whole, according to the copies of frescoes by Raphael in the Vatican. During the period from 1683 to 1794, the total number of Chambers in the Vatican had nine wo- ven versions. The present tapestry, which depicts the School of Athens, the first and most frequently presented scene from the papal apartments, was part of the group of eight from Vatican Chambers, i.e. the second-last weavings.
In the Gobelins factory, the composition of the painted copy of the School of Athens was changed slightly by a group of artists who worked on paper
(cartonniers), who arranged its adaptation so that it could be used as a model during the weaving of the wall hangings. As a result, it was of limited height and was enlarged in the corners of the high points, so as to redraw the arched outline of the fresco of the dome on the rectangular shape of the tapestry.
The wall hangings of the Vatican Chambers literally permit the moving of the Papal Palace decoration, with its full imprint, through the intervention of another technique, which touches on perfection thanks to 17th and18th century French artists and technicians.
Eight frescoes were the objects to be transformed into tapestries: The School of Athens, The Battle of Constantine, The Vision of Constantine, The Mass at Bolsena, Attila expelled from Rome, Parnassus, The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple and The Fire in Borgo. Without doubt, however, the School of Athens remains, even to this day, as testified by the fresco, the composition most frequently depicted.
This may possibly be the reason why, as early as the period of their creation, during the years of Louis XIV and his successors, the wall hangings were presented in multiple cases, either at royal ceremonies – such as the inauguration of Louis XV – or hanged inside the leaders’ palaces. Two fabrics representing the School of Athens, to which the present wall hanging belongs, were woven just before the French Revolution, and have been ex- hibited for many years in the French National As- sembly, in which the laws of France are discussed and drawn up.
So, owing precisely to their theme, these particular wall hangings were selected for this highly sym- bolic land of Democracy. In reality, the composi-
THE AWAKENING OF HELLENISM From Archaeoloatry to Philhellenism 55