Monday 31 May 2010 20.33 EDT First published on Monday 31 May 2010 20.33 EDT. Tropical Storm Agatha swept across Central America yesterday, bringing torrential rain that killed more than 100 people and opened a 60m-deep sinkhole in Guatemala City which reportedly swallowed up a three-storey building.
The artist who takes the biggest step away from the Medieval style of spiritual representation in painting in the early 14th century is Giotto. Giotto is perhaps best known for the frescos he painted in the Arena (or Scrovegni) Chapel. They were commissioned by a wealthy man named Enrico Scrovegni, the son of a well-known banker (and a banker himself).
The original name of the fresco actually isCausarum Cognitio (Knowledge of Causes) but it is called School of Athens from a 17th century guidebook. The School of Athens was painted by the 27 year old Raphael (Raffaelo) Sanzio (or Santi) for Pope Julius II (1503-1513).In 1508 the young native of Urbino had been recommended to Julius II by Donato Bramante, the pope's architect, and also a native of Urbino.So enthusiastic was the pope when he saw the fresco that Raphael received the commission to paint the entire papal suite.ith his right hand Plato gestures upwards, indicating that the eternal verities and forms, such as the ideals of Beauty, Goodness and Truth, are not in or of this world of space, time and matter, but lie beyond, in a timeless, spaceless realm of pure Ideas.