I’ve recently gained a better appreciation for how astonishingly good this work is at linear perspective, which had only come about in European art in the prior century. Many things about this painting are good (and some bad to my eye, like the messy color scheme) but those hexagonal details on the curved arches in perspective is 100% Raphael showing off.
An aside, but linear perspective is the most rational part of art, in the older philosophical sense of rational; it’s pretty much the only major part of classical art which descends from first principles rather than having an empirical basis.
I’ve recently gained a better appreciation for how astonishingly good this work is at linear perspective, which had only come about in European art in the prior century. Many things about this painting are good (and some bad to my eye, like the messy color scheme) but those hexagonal details on the curved arches in perspective is 100% Raphael showing off.
An aside, but linear perspective is the most rational part of art, in the older philosophical sense of rational; it’s pretty much the only major part of classical art which descends from first principles rather than having an empirical basis.