Stanza della Segnatura

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Stanza della Segnatura

	The School of Athens
Justice Three Virtues above: Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance. Below left: Justinian receiving Civil Law; Below right: Pope Gregory IX receiving the Decretals (Canon Law).		Parnassus
	Disputà

Ceiling of the Stanza della Segnatura

The structure of the ceiling of the Stanza della Segnatura can be compared to a tradition of macrocosm diagrams that extends back to Antiquity through the Middle Ages into the Renaissance. The example below typifies this type diagram:

Here we see the Four Elements placed at the four corners beginning at the top with Fire (Ignis) and moving clockwise around with Earth (Terra), Water (Aqua), Air (Aer). Linking the Four Elements are the so-called Four Qualities: Hot (Calor), Dryness (Sicci), Cold (Frigi), Wetness (Humor). Each of the Four Elements is formed of the combination of the adjacent Qualities. Note how this establishes the opposition of the Elements so that Water is the combination of cold and wetness is the opposite of Fire which is the combination of hot and dryness. The following table charts out some of the correspondences articulated by this plan of the macrocosm:

Elements	Temperaments	Ages of Life	Planets	Seasons	Winds	Times of Day	Colors	Qualities
Air	Sanguine	Childhood	Jupiter	Spring	Zephyr	Morning	Red	Hot / Moist
Fire	Choleric	Youth	Mars	Summer	Eurus	Midday	Yellow	Hot / Dry
Earth	Melancholy	Maturity	Saturn	Autumn	Boreas	Dusk	Black	Cold / Dry
Water	Phlegmatic	Old Age	Venus	Winter	Auster	Night	White	Cold / Moist

Edgar Wind has noted that the small narrative scenes in the panels that link the personifications of the disciplines can be seen to symbolize the four elements.

Examine the ceiling of the Stanza della Segnatura carefully and see how it does not just copy the form of the macrocosm diagram, but it also employs a similar pattern of like and opposite.