The School of Athens
Raphael
1509–1511
The School of Athens is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1509 and 1511 as part of a commission by Pope Julius II to decorate the rooms now called the Stanze di Raffaello in the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City.
The fresco depicts a congregation of ancient mathematicians, philosophers, and scientists, with Plato and Aristotle featured in the center. The identities of most figures are ambiguous or discernible only through subtle details or allusions; among those commonly identified are Socrates, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Heraclitus, Ibn Rushd (known as Averroes in the west), Euclid, and Zarathustra.
Apostolic Palace, Vatican City · Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain · Text: Wikipedia (adapted), CC BY-SA 4.0 · Read more: museivaticani.va
