| This paper will expand on the connection between the ideals of philosophical and Christian happiness in relation to the private setting of Julius's library, the Stanza della Segnatura, which was designed to nurture the activity of his soul. Additionally, this thesis will address the decision by Raphael and his advisors to include the title of Aristotle's Eudemian-Nicomachean Ethics in Philosophy, argued here to stress the themes of contemplation, the cultivation of virtue, and happiness in the Segnatura. These themes also reinforce the concord between Aristotle and Plato in the room and target a specific moral and ethical message to Julius II. Through an Aristotelian lens, this paper will provide new interpretations on the fictive reliefs under Apollo and Minerva in Philosophy, and the figures on the entablature of Jurisprudence. Lastly, I will explore the ways in which the Segnatura activated the soul of Julius II, and allowed him to attain happiness, or eudaimonia, according to Aristotle's Ethics. |
