The School of Athens

Raphael's School of Athens fills one wall of the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican, painted while Michelangelo was at work on the Sistine ceiling nearby. Under a vast vaulted hall inspired by Bramante's plans for the new St. Peter's, the thinkers of the ancient world gather, with Plato pointing upward and holding his Timaeus beside Aristotle with his Ethics. The fun is spotting who is who. Heraclitus, slumped on a block of marble and writing, is a portrait of Michelangelo, and the young man in the black beret at the far right is Raphael himself, looking straight out at you.