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The School of Athens (Scuola di Atene) is one of the best pieces of art in the history of humanity, here's the Lego version: The School of Athens was completed in 1511 and is not only considered Raffaello Sanzio's finest work, but also the work that sums up the spirit of the Renaissance. My brother has struggling to finish this project properly and almost set it aside and gave up. I took it over and finished it in a smaller scale. Why "The School of Athens"? With so many sets based on movie and on pop culture, we thought it was only right to give art in the traditional sense a chance at becoming an official product. For us, this painting represents humanity, explicitly and implicitly. Just at first galnce, some aspects of human knowledge are visible: architecture, painting, sculpture, philosophy, anatomy, cosmology, but also things inherent to the work: manual rendering of materials and surfaces, colour theory or the perspectives that became so common around then. But the fun of it are the layers of extra meaning it bears. The figures stand in certain angles, perpetually braking the symmetry, linking geometry to the real world. Raphael crafted the characters so they are immensely expressive and vital; they really do feel alive, something I feel my brother has also achieved, they interact, they discuss, they disagree, they agree, they are typically human: they cooperate with one another, something the ancients can teach us. I believe this is not a mere fresco, it is a piece of art that can teach us. Who is who? Represented here are some of the most important philosophers, mathematicians and thinkers of ancient Greece, Rome and even muslim Spain. Some of the statues are pagan gods and some of the figures have the faces of eminent Renaissance figures, with Heraclitus having Michelangelo's face, Euclid having Bramante's face and Apelles having the painter's face, all in all, a nice mix, something that also applies to today's multicultural cityscapes. Video: Fun facts about the Lego model: Originally the plan was to give the 1x1 brick with 4 studs on the sides to the women in the painting and the Erling brick to the men, but my brother ended up giving the 1x1 brick with 4 studs on the sides to male figures too, as the Erling brick didn't allow for side hair. The compass Euclid uses are some cherries. The only Olive Green pieces in the whole model are for Socrates, the originator of what today we understand as "philosophy" (the philosophers before him are today known as "pre-Socratics". The robes next to Diogenes are regular Lavander, nor Medium Lavander like the rest of the robes in the rest of the model. Only women wear Aqua garbs.
