Disputation over the Most Holy Sacrament

The people below gather around an altar. Above them, another assembly curves around Christ, with God the Father overhead and the dove of the Holy Spirit beneath. Raphael links the two groups along the centre of the wall. The small object on the altar is the Sacrament, the consecrated host at the centre of the Catholic Mass. The Disputation over the Most Holy Sacrament presents theology in the Room of the Segnatura. It faces the School of Athens, where ancient philosophers gather around Plato and Aristotle. Here, biblical figures and saints share a heavenly assembly while people on earth turn towards the altar. Four early Latin Christian theologians, known as the Church Fathers, sit nearest it. Raphael also gave some figures recognizable faces. Pope Julius II appears as Gregory the Great, an earlier pope. The assembly includes the poet Dante and the painter Fra Angelico. Different periods meet within the painted scene, joined by the subject of Christian belief. Follow the movement from the crowded gathering below towards the ordered group above.