<P> The School of Athens ( Italian : Scuola di Atene ) 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 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 , representing Philosophy , was probably the second painting to be finished there , after La Disputa ( Theology ) on the opposite wall , and the Parnassus ( Literature ) . The picture has long been seen as `` Raphael 's masterpiece and the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the Renaissance '' . </P>
<P> The School of Athens ( Italian : Scuola di Atene ) 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 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 , representing Philosophy , was probably the second painting to be finished there , after La Disputa ( Theology ) on the opposite wall , and the Parnassus ( Literature ) . The picture has long been seen as `` Raphael 's masterpiece and the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the Renaissance '' . </P>
who was the school of athens painted for
who was the school of athens painted for
Apostolic Palace in the Vatican
Apostolic Palace in the Vatican