Raphael: The Vision of a Knight (1504-1505)

 

(National Gallery, London, UK)

A painting by the Italian artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (1483 – 1520), better known as Raphael. the painting shows a sleeping knight and a tree in the centre, flanked by two ladies. What this painting represents is unknown. It could be a reference to Roman general Scipio Aemilianus (185–129 BC) who dreamed that he had to choose between Virtue (on the left with a steep and rocky path behind her) and Pleasure (on the right) as told in Cicero's Somnium Scipionis. It could also represent the ideal attributes of the knight: the book, sword and flower which both ladies hold could suggest the ideals of scholar, soldier and lover which an ideal knight should combine. Painting from 1504-1505.