Art History: Pope Story #1
1300s
Babylonian Captivity
King of France ordered the Pope to leave the Vatican in Rome, he dragged the pope to a town in the middle of nowhere. This is a terrible time for the papacy. There are people in Rome who name a new pope, believing the old pope had lost its way. The new pope and the old pope excommunicate one another. Then a new pope was named, and all the popes excommunicated one another in a power play between monarchs and popes. The pope crowns kings and gives divine right of monarch, so when the King of France discounts the pope, he creates a mess for the European monarchs. The monarchs set up a new pope in Rome, but then Pope Julius the Second arrived with an army and took the title with his army behind him to back him up. Pope Julius the Second not being afraid of anybody, especially pagan ideas, embraces these ideas and adapts them to Christianity by commissioning the painting "School of Athens".
Raphael in his piece "School of Athens", captures the images of brilliant pagan thinkers, and utilizes geometry is beauty, is divine, as a Christian piece.
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