The School of Athens (1509-1511) by Raphael

Fifty-eight different philosophers are gathered on a sunny day in a beautiful palace-like building. The philosophers are busy with a variety of activities, such as reading, writing, listening, and arguing. But who do you recognize? Let me help you a little bit. We start with the two men standing under the arch in the center of the fresco. The man on the left with the red robe is Plato, and the man on the right with the blue robe is Aristotle. Several figures to the left of Plato, you can see a man in his green robe. This is Socrates. Four to five people are listening to his story. And in the center below Aristotle, we can see a half-naked man dressed in blue sitting on the stairs. This is Diogenes, a controversial philosopher who liked to live on the street and constantly criticized people. Are you going to discuss all the different people in this painting? While I would love to do that, I am afraid that there is no time for that. But let me point out a few funny details in this work. On the right foreground, Raphael also depicted himself. He is the second man standing from the left just to the right of the man in the yellow robe. He wears a black cap, and we can only see his young face. Raphael also used other contemporaries as models for the philosophers in this fresco. For example, Leonardo da Vinci served as a model for Plato, and the architect Bramante is used as a model for Euclid. There is also speculation that Michelangelo served as the model for one of the philosophers in the foreground. Thank you.