The School of Athens: the figures in Raphael's fresco, who is who?

The figures in The School of Athens are the philosophers and scientists of antiquity, gathered by Raphael in a fresco in the Vatican of 1509–1511. In the centre stand Plato, who points upwards, and Aristotle, who holds his hand towards the earth. Around them are, among others, Socrates, Diogenes, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Euclid and Ptolemy. Only Plato and Aristotle are securely identified; for the others the names rest on tradition and interpretation.

Facts

The room and the commission

In 1508 Pope Julius II had the young Raphael repaint a series of rooms in the Vatican Palace. The Stanza della Segnatura was probably the pope's library, and the walls were given frescoes on the fields of knowledge: theology, philosophy, poetry and law. The School of Athens represents philosophy, opposite a fresco on the sacrament of the Eucharist usually called the Disputa. Faith and reason thus stand face to face in the same room.

At the same time Michelangelo was painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel a few rooms away, and the architect Bramante was working on the plans for the new St Peter's Basilica. The name The School of Athens is not Raphael's own; the fresco acquired it afterwards.

The centre: Plato and Aristotle

Under the central arch two men walk towards us. On the left stands Plato, older and bearded, in red and violet. He points upwards towards the world of ideas and carries his dialogue the Timaeus, on the creation of the world. His features have often been said to be Leonardo da Vinci's, but that is an interpretation, not a fact.

Beside him walks his pupil Aristotle in blue and brown, with his hand held out horizontally over the ground, and he carries his Ethics. The gestures sum up two ways of seeking knowledge: in the eternal and unchanging, or in the world one can observe. All the lines of the perspective, in the floor and the vaults, meet between their heads. It is central perspective that leads the eye to the conversation.

Left side: Socrates and Pythagoras

To the left of Plato, Socrates, in an olive-green cloak and with his characteristic blunt profile, turns to a group of young men and counts off his arguments on his fingers. Among the listeners is a young man in armour usually interpreted as Alcibiades or Alexander the Great.

At the bottom left Pythagoras sits writing in a book, while a boy holds up a tablet with a diagram of the ratios of musical notes, his teaching on harmony. The man with vine leaves in his hair close by is usually called Epicurus. Some interpreters have seen a woman in white as Hypatia, the mathematician of Alexandria, but the identification is uncertain.

The steps and the foreground: Diogenes and Heraclitus

On the steps a half-naked man lies sprawled with his bowl, indifferent to everything around him. This is Diogenes, the Cynic philosopher who according to legend lived in a barrel and despised all wealth. He has a whole step to himself, as if to show how he placed himself outside society.

In the foreground a brooding man sits alone, leaning against a block of stone with a pen in his hand. He is called Heraclitus and has Michelangelo's features. The figure is not on Raphael's cartoon, the large preparatory drawing in Milan, and was probably added late. Perhaps Raphael had seen the first part of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, which was shown in 1511, and wanted to pay tribute to his rival.

Right side: Euclid, Ptolemy and Raphael himself

Down on the right a man bends over a tablet with a pair of compasses, surrounded by eager pupils. He is usually called Euclid, the father of geometry, sometimes Archimedes, and according to Vasari he has the features of the architect Bramante. Behind him stands Ptolemy with his back to us and a terrestrial globe in his hand; he has a crown because he used to be confused with the kings of Egypt. Opposite, a bearded man holds a celestial globe, often interpreted as Zoroaster.

At the far right, almost at the edge, a young man in a black beret looks out at us. It is Raphael's self-portrait, a signature in the form of a face. The man beside him has been interpreted as another painter, perhaps Sodoma or Perugino. In the niches in the walls stand statues of Apollo with his lyre and Athena with her shield, the gods of art and wisdom.

The room's other walls and the technique

The School of Athens should be seen together with the other frescoes in the room. Opposite is the Disputa, in which Church Fathers and theologians gather around the bread of the Eucharist beneath a heaven with Christ and the saints. On one short wall Parnassus shows Apollo among the Muses and poets, including Homer, Dante and Sappho. On the other stand the Virtues and the founders of law. Together the walls form a map of all human knowledge, in which philosophy and theology stand in balance.

Raphael painted the fresco in wet lime plaster, one section at a time. Each day's work, a giornata, had to be painted before the plaster dried, and the joins between the day sections can sometimes be seen in raking light. The figures were transferred from full-scale cartoons; that is why the preparatory drawing in Milan is so important for understanding how the image developed. The technique is explained in the guide to fresco, tempera and oil.

Point for yourself

In the diagram below you can point to the philosophers and see who is who, and then test yourself. The same image appears in Looking at art among the paintings to examine in detail. Perspective is explained in the section on perspective and in the guide to central perspective. On Plato's and Aristotle's views of art you can read in the aesthetics chapter on the Greeks, and on the period in the guide What is the Renaissance?. Michelangelo's ceiling, which Raphael perhaps paid tribute to, is in the app as The Creation of Adam.

Who is who

Exercise

Who in The School of Athens points upwards to the heavens?