THE RAPHAEL CARTOON | PYTHAGORAS AND HIS DISCIPLES

Pythagoras is writing: the board on which the numerical ratios underlying the sounds are shown is missing from the Cartoon, graphic representation of the harmonic ratios, together with the sacred tetractys (clearly visible instead in the fresco in the Vatican). According to Giovanni Reale’s interpretation, the three young people around Pythagoras would represent the three ages in which mathematics must be taught to young people. The character with the turban would simply indicate the Arabic origin of numbers.

© Francesco Cibati