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The School of Athens
Raphael · Renaissance & Mannerism
- Artist
- Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) (1483–1520)
- Date
- 1509–1511
- Dimensions
- 500 x 770 cm
- Medium
- Fresco
- Location
- Stanza della Segnatura, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City
The School of Athens is Raphael’s fresco in the Vatican apartments of Pope Julius II. It gathers the great thinkers of ancient Greece in a vast, imaginary hall built in the style of the new St Peter’s Basilica.
A closer look
At the centre, beneath the arches, walk Plato and Aristotle: Plato points upwards to the realm of ideas, Aristotle holds his hand flat towards the earthly world. Around them philosophers argue, write and teach: Socrates counting off arguments, Pythagoras with a slate, Euclid bending over a diagram. Raphael gave several of them the faces of his contemporaries. Plato is often said to resemble Leonardo, and Raphael included himself at the far right, looking out at us.
More by Raphael
In this gallery
Famous works elsewhere
- La fornarina 1519
- Madonna of the Goldfinch 1505
- The Marriage of the Virgin 1504
- Madonna del Granduca 1506
- Transfiguration 1518
- Madonna del Prato 1505