How to Read Paintings: The School of Athens by Raphael
Ancient Greece in the heart of the Pope’s palace
If you’ve ever visited the Vatican City in Rome and walked through the decorated rooms of the Apostolic Palace, you’ll know how the profusion of art on display is overwhelming.
Visitors are led through room after room whose walls and ceilings are covered in immense fresco paintings. Four rooms in particular stand out, known as the Stanze di Raffaello (the ‘Raphael Rooms’). These are a suite of reception rooms decorated by the Italian painter Raphael and his workshop during the early years of the 16th century. Museum visitors tend to see these first, before being led onto the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo painted his famous ceiling frescoes.
It is in the Raphael Rooms that the image known as The School of Athens is displayed. Painted in around 1510, it covers one wall of the Stanza della Segnatura (the ‘Signature Room’). This room was a council chamber where most of the important papal documents were signed and sealed with ‘bulls’ of wax or lead.
Raphael was commissioned to paint the walls of the Stanza della Segnatura by Pope Julius II. Julius was an industrious pope whose visionary ambitions for the Christian faith saw him undertake numerous architectural and artistic projects.
