The purpose of this essay is to examine the relationship between Christian and humanistic themes within the four large frescoes that Raphael painted in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican Palace. Through this examination I plan to demonstrate how the interrelation of these two seemingly contradictory themes was critical for the political aims and papal identity of the patron, Pope Julius II. I will argue that Julius commissioned the decoration of the stanza as a means of asserting his papal authority and presenting an identification of himself as the new Julius Caesar who ushered in a new Roman Golden Age. I will discuss the composition and iconography of the frescoes, the life of Pope Julius II, and Roman humanism in the Early Modern Period, in an attempt to prove that the representation and collaboration of the themes of humanism and Christianity were essential to Julius’s political strategies and identity-formation.

The aim of this essay is to examine and compare how virtue was depicted in the visual arts in medieval and renaissance Italy: why it was depicted this way; how the depiction of virtues may have differed between the two periods and, if so, what caused it to change. The essay first examines and analyses the history of virtue, beginning in classical antiquity, and the evolution of virtue through the Middle Ages and the virtues’ role in society and art. It follows with a close examination of Giotto di Bondone and his grisaille frescoes of the virtues and vices in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. The essay then examines the role of virtue in renaissance society and art, followed by a close examination of Raphael and his frescoes of the heavenly virtues in the Stanza della Segnatura in The Vatican Palace in Rome. The essay concludes with a discussion of how the two periods differed in their depiction of virtue and why.