How can art mirror society?

Art can be a mirror in a society by the way the artist sees it. It will be only his interpretation of society that he is familiar with or his perceptions of it. Raphael saw the School of Athens, as a place for thought. The painting gave us his interpretation of the two views that were dominant in his time. The two men Plato and Aristotle represent the different view points of the school, but also represent how society was split between these two views of thought during the high renaissance. Plato's viewpoints say that the world transcends there is something higher, more perfect and greater. Raphael used red and grey on Plato's clothing, red representing fire and gray representing air. These represent the view of a spiritual world, that there is something higher more perfect. The architecture shows two separate thoughts of the time. Aristotle represents the non-secular views of the time. This way of thinking was more concerned with the world around us. What is tangible, what can we observe, and how can we make sense of the world around us. Raphael uses the colours blue and brown which represent water and earth to show this view point. Raphael showed an accurate representation of that time period as he saw it.