Escuela de Atenas 20180402 160428

Plato and Aristotle stand at the center of the composition, framed by a series of receding barrel vaults. Plato points toward the heavens while holding his 'Timaeus,' and Aristotle gestures toward the earth while holding his 'Ethics.' Surrounding them are groups of scholars engaged in debate and demonstration, including Pythagoras with a musical tablet and Euclid using a compass.

This work is the definitive visual statement of Renaissance Neoplatonism and the 'Prisca Theologia'—the idea of a single, ancient theology that connects all great thinkers. It maps the intellectual genealogy that informed Western esotericism, reconciling the idealism of the Academy with the empiricism of the Lyceum.