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The School of Athens was painted by twenty-seven year-old Raphael Sanzio for Pope Julius II. 1503-1513 C.E. The practice during Imperial Roman times of furnishing libraries with portraits of great poets was revived in fifteenth century Italy. Raphael revolutionized this practice in the Stanza by harmoniously arranging large groups of people as one unit in his fresco compositions. In the fresco of the School of Athens, sages from different epochs are arranged as colleagues in a timeless academy. Those that have been positively identified using accurate historical evidence are: Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid, Alcibiades, Diogenes, Ptolemy, Zoroaster and Raphael. |