The fresco was created at the initiative of Pope Julius II in 1511 to decorate one of his apartments – the so-called Stanza delle Segnatura. The room (stanza in Italian), in which it is located, was a papal library, but also as its name would suggest, a place where important documents of the State of the Church were signed. The lower part of the room was occupied with shelves filled with books, the upper depicted three scenes – The School of Athens, The Disputation and The Parnassus. These frescoes served not only as decoration, immortalizing Raphael’s talent which the pope had discovered, but also imparted a certain program. This was the desire to express the power of the papacy, based on the three Neoplatonic pillars – Truth, Goodness and Beauty. On the vault of the room, there are four personifications, corresponding with the wall paintings – Justice, Poetry, Theology, and Philosophy. The last one is of course located above the School of Athens and it is to this human activity that the fresco of interest to us is devoted. On the area of nearly eight square meters it depicts philosophers, since that is the name given to thinkers and wise men of antiquity, whom Raphael immortalized in his painting.

However, let us move on to the work itself and the figures seen upon it. Firstly it must be mentioned, that their attribution is not unequivocal and convincing – it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. The figures of philosophers on the fresco are accompanied by students who keenly observe them, while all of them are shown in small groups or individually, sometimes lost in thought, sometimes in reading, they represent the individual trends in ancient philosophy in its various aspects and forms.

In the central part Plato (on the left) and Aristotle (on the right) take center stage – two representatives of separate philosophical systems: idealism and realism. The first as the initiator of the idealist movement, points to the sky, as if it was a goal of the search for the invisible spirit, the other points to the ground, as if he was saying “pay attention to what is here”. Plato dressed in red and crimson symbolizes the weightless fire and air. While Aristotle – in brown and blue – can be an indication of water and earth. On the left of Plato there are representatives of his teachings, on the right – those who based their way of thinking on the works of Aristotle. We shall attempt to name each of them, however before that, it is worth taking a look at the decoration of the room, where the meeting of the philosophers takes place. On the left side (the Platonic one) there are classical sculptures depicting Apollo (the god of sun, music and poetry), on the right – Athena (the goddess of war and wisdom).

Let us start with Plato’s side. Immediately behind a group of men who adore him, there are three additional figures, among whom his teacher Socrates stands out, with a somewhat faun-like physiognomy, lost in discussion with his supporter Xenophon as well as a politician an military strategist Alcibiades (in armor). Below is another group, centered around the writing mathematician Pythagoras, seeking nearly ideal harmony in music and mathematics. The mysterious figure in a turban looking over his shoulder is interpreted by some as the medieval Arabic philosopher Averroes, although if the identification of this figure is indeed correct, this scientist should have been placed on the opposite side. The man standing immediately next to Pythagoras is identified as Empedocles (?), the creator of the concept of the four elements. On the other hand, the figure of girlish beauty, looking at the viewer, dressed in a white robe, still stimulates the imagination today. Some see in her Hypatia – a mathematician from Alexandria, others claim that it is a relative of Pope Julius II – Duke of Urbino Francesco Maria della Rovere.

Exactly opposite, on the right, there is a group concentrated around Euclid drawing geometrical figures. Directly above him is the astronomer Ptolemy, the creator of the geocentric system with the Earth in the palm of his hand and the accompanying Zoroaster (?) holding a celestial sphere.

In the middle (on the stairs) in a pose full of carelessness lies a representative of the Cynics, bereft of desires Diogenes, the one who in response to a question posed by Alexander the Great, as to what is his desire was to have replied: “Stand out of my light.” Right next to him, in the foreground, leaning on a block of marble, sits the loner Heraclitus pondering the fate of the world and claiming that it is like a river, where everything undergoes constant change.

The painting is not bereft of a certain amusing tone as well, constituting a kind of a riddle. We must imagine church dignitaries and artists of those times, who with their finger point to each individual person on the painting, searching for people they know from everyday life. Plato looks like Leonardo da Vinci. Certainly in the right corner we notice the author of the fresco himself in a dark hat, directing his gaze onto the onlookers. In the man standing next to him some see his teacher Perugino (while others his friend – Sodoma). In the figure of Heraclitus we can recognize Michelangelo. Raphael did not like him too much, believing him to be a dour weirdo. That should come as no surprise – at the papal court he was treated rather skeptically due to his difficult character. Raphael also did not like the fact, that jealous of his work and always seeing enemies everywhere Michelangelo, who at that time was occupied with the painting of the vault of the Sistine Chapel hid his work from his colleagues. Thus he allowed himself a bit of spite. He painted him, or more appropriately added him right at the very end, when the fresco had already been completed, in a pose reminiscent of the prophet Isaiah from his own fresco. There was also room for the great architect of the then Rome, the creator of the design of the new St. Peter’s Basilica – Donato Bramante, depicted in the figure of Euclid. The architect reaching back to the tradition of ancient art, based his concept of the basilica on an ideal harmony of squares and circles. And it is most likely this architecture that Raphael thought of in painting his fresco. It has no elements of Greek architecture, while (arches, domes, cradle) there is a reference to ancient and monumental in character Roman architecture which was near and dear to the artists of that time, and was just being discovered.

In studying Raphael’s work we should therefore conclude, that it is the philosophy of the ideas of Plato, in which the world is a reflection of divine beauty and natural philosophy with Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, became the foundation of Christian knowledge and philosophy – the perfect one, and that is what Raphael is saying. That is also generally how his fresco is interpreted, however there is a certain but. Analyzing it, we assume that it represents the two most important philosophers of antiquity, since each of them holds his own book in his hand – Plato, Timaeus, while Aristotle the aforementioned Ethics. However, we cannot be sure that the titles of books shown here and written in Latin (!), really came from under the hand of Raphael. Perhaps they were added later, for instance, after the famous Sacco di Roma (1527), when the frescoes damaged by the landsknechts of Emperor Charles underwent restoration. This would be evidenced by a cartoon of the fresco by Raphael, found in Milan, on which Plato does not hold any book in his hand, while the book held by Aristotle bears no title. Such an assumption provided interesting hypotheses and alternative interpretations of Raphael’s painting, proving that, the idea of the artist was not to present the most important philosophers of antiquity, but… - in accordance with the teaching of the then Church – two other figures. Who were they supposed to be? In order to respond to this question we must take into account that the city of Athena was not only connected with Plato and Aristotle. It was there, that St. Paul preached and it is he (along with St. Peter), who is viewed as the creator of the papacy, but also of the Greek Church, whose representative, but also Paul’s student, was Dionysus Areopagite. He was not only converted to Christianity by the apostle, but he also became the first bishop of the Greek Church. If we were to agree with this interpretation of the fresco, then it would carry a completely different message, which was important for the popes of that time and the Roman Catholic Church as a whole – it would confirm the papacy’s claim to supremacy over both the Roman Church as well as the Byzantine one, which were at that time heavily divided. Thus we would have in place of Aristotle, St. Paul, while instead of Plato – St. Dionysus Areopagite, while behind them both Greek and foreign philosophers. What is more interesting, St. Dionysus in times of the Renaissance was considered to be an author of theological writings which were later shown to be the work of someone completely different (the so-called Pseudo-Dionysus Areopagite, the creator of Neo-Platonic thought). Perhaps Raphael’s initial idea was to depict St. Paul and Dionysus, while their identity was changed at the time when Pseudo-Dionysus was recognized as the true author of philosophical writings thus discrediting St. Dionysus as a wise man.

This alternative interpretation is however, unpopular, which is made more obvious reading guidebooks, in which we are unequivocally told that these are the two main protagonists of the School of Athens, Plato and Aristotle.

Raphael’s work hides in it, as we see many mysteries as well as interpretational riddles, which will for a long time to come occupy the mind of researchers of this important work. However, regardless of this fact, the fresco will still be accompanied by the basic intention of its creator – the creation of a dignified, monumental and suggestive work, but most of all full of harmony. And so it shall remain forever.