School of Athens

Find the two men walking together at the centre of the School of Athens. Plato points upwards and carries his Timaeus. Aristotle carries the Ethics beside him. These ancient Greek philosophers give the crowded scene a centre, framed by the open arches behind them. Raphael painted the room's decoration between 1508 and 1511. This gathering brings thinkers from different times into one imagined place. Lower down, Diogenes reclines on the steps. Elsewhere, a geometry lesson gathers people around a demonstration. The architecture recalls designs by Bramante, the architect working on the new St Peter's Basilica. Ancient learning fills a setting that would also have looked connected to building in Raphael's Rome. Several faces have been identified with people from Raphael's own time. The brooding writer represents Heraclitus with Michelangelo's features. At the far right, a young man in a black cap is identified as Raphael himself. Across the room, the Disputation over the Most Holy Sacrament presents theology. The two walls give different kinds of thought a place within the same papal room.