The School of Athens |Dimensions||500 cm × 770 cm (200 in × 300
in)| |Location||Apostolic Palace, Vatican City| The School of
Athens, or Scuola di Atene in Italian, is one of the most famous
frescoes by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was
painted between 1509 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission
to decorate with frescoes the rooms now known as the Stanze di
Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The Stanza
della Segnatura was the first of the rooms to be decorated, and
The School of Athens the second painting to be finished there,
after La Disputa, on the opposite wall. The picture has long
been seen as "Raphael's masterpiece and the perfect embodiment
of the classical spirit of the High Renaissance." Program,
subject, figure identifications and interpretations The "School
of Athens" is one of a group of four main frescoes on the walls
of the Stanza (those on either side centrally interrupted by
windows) that depict distinct branches of knowledge. Each theme
is identified above by