Leonardo Da Vinci As Plato & Moon Craters & Asteroids - Colne, UK
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member dtrebilc
N 53° 51.431 W 002° 09.994
30U E 554817 N 5967953
This large mural in Colne represents the past history and potential future of the town of Colne. It includes a representation of Leonardo Da Vinci posing as the philosopher Plato from the Raphael painting 'School of Athens'.
Waymark Code: WMQ6QR
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/30/2015
Published By:Groundspeak Regular Member Bernd das Brot Team
Views: 3

The mural is on the wall of a food shop facing a car park. The relevant references from the painting are explained below.

"The School of Athens, or Scuola di Atene in Italian, is one of the most famous frescoes by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1509 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate the rooms now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The Stanza della Segnatura was the first of the rooms to be decorated, and The School of Athens, representing Philosophy, was probably the second painting to be finished there, after La Disputa (Theology) on the opposite wall, and the Parnassus (Literature). The picture has long been seen as "Raphael's masterpiece and the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the Renaissance...

...Commentators have suggested that nearly every great ancient Greek philosopher can be found in the painting, but determining which are depicted is difficult, since Raphael made no designations outside possible likenesses, and no contemporary documents explain the painting...

...The identities of some of the philosophers in the picture, such as Plato or Aristotle, are certain. Beyond that, identifications of Raphael’s figures have always been hypothetical. To complicate matters, beginning from Vasari’s efforts, some have received multiple identifications, not only as ancients but also as figures contemporary with Raphael...

... 14: Plato (Leonardo da Vinci) 15: Aristotle (Giuliano da Sangallo)...

...In the center of the fresco, at its architecture's central vanishing point, are the two undisputed main subjects: Plato on the left and Aristotle, his student, on the right...

It is popularly thought that their gestures indicate central aspects of their philosophies". Extracted from this link

In the modern mural Plato is talking to a modern architect rather than Aristotle. The architect is pointing to the horizon. Plato warns against shorted-sighted schemes and points upwards encouraging him to consider higher things and the long term effects of his plans.

Both Plato and Leonardo Da Vinci have a moon crater and an asteroid named after them.

Plato the philosopher
Plato in Classical Attic; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a philosopher and mathematician in Classical Greece, and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western tradition. Unlike nearly all of his philosophical contemporaries, Plato's entire œuvre is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years. link

Asteroid 5451 Plato
This asteroid is a main belt asteroid discovered 1960-Sep-24 by van Houten and Gehrels at Paloma. link

Plato Lunar Crater
Plato is the lava-filled remains of a lunar impact crater on the Moon. It is located on the northeastern shore of the Mare Imbrium, at the western extremity of the Montes Alpes mountain range. In the mare to the south are several rises collectively named the Montes Teneriffe. To the north lies the wide stretch of the Mare Frigoris. East of the crater, among the Montes Alpes, are several rilles collectively named the Rimae Plato.

The age of Plato is about 3.84 billion years, only slightly younger than the Mare Imbrium to the south. The rim is irregular with 2-km-tall jagged peaks that project prominent shadows across the crater floor when the Sun is at a low angle. Sections of the inner wall display signs of past slumping, most notably a large triangular slide along the western side. The rim of Plato is circular, but from the Earth it appears oval due to foreshortening.

The flat floor of Plato has a relatively low albedo, making it appear dark in comparison to the surrounding rugged terrain. The floor is free of significant impact craters and lacks a central peak. However there are a few small craterlets scattered across the floor.

Plato has developed a reputation for transient lunar phenomena, including flashes of light, unusual colour patterns, and areas of hazy visibility. These anomalies are likely a result of seeing conditions, combined with the effects of different illumination angles of the Sun.

The 17th-century astronomer Hevelius called this feature the 'Greater Black Lake'.

The Crater Plato in fiction
The crater Plato is the location of an observatory in Arthur C. Clarke's novel Earthlight (1955), of the lunar "warren" Hong Kong Luna in Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966), and of Moonbase Alpha in the science-fiction TV series Space: 1999. Crater Plato is the home crater of Matthew Looney and Maria Looney, protagonists of the Looney series of children's books set on the Moon, written by Jerome Beatty. link

Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, more commonly Leonardo da Vinci ; 15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519), was an Italian polymath whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He has been variously called the father of paleontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter and tank, his genius epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. link

Asteroid 3000 Leonardo
This asteroid is a main belt asteroid Discovered 1981-Mar-02 by Bus, S. J. at Siding Spring link

Da Vinci lunar crater
da Vinci is a lunar crater that is located in the eastern part of the Moon, to the northwest of Mare Fecunditatis. It lies along the eastern shore of the Sinus Concordiae, a bay along the eastern edge of Mare Tranquillitatis. Nearby craters include Watts to the southeast and Lawrence to the southwest, both smaller in dimension than da Vinci.

This formation has been heavily damaged and reshaped until it is scarcely recognizable as a crater. Sections of the low eastern rim and a portion to the northwest are still somewhat intact, although they more closely resemble curved ridges than a crater wall. There are gaps in the rim to the south and north, and the interior is irregular with portions having been resurfaced.

The terrain along the northern and western exterior of the crater is irregular and hilly. A low ridge to the southeast runs to the vicinity of Watts. link
Celestial Body: Other

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