School of Athens by Raphael, Vintage Renaissance

The School of Athens (detail) (Scuola di Atene in Italian)(1510/1511) by Raphael Sanzio, Raffaello (1483-1520) is a vintage Renaissance Era fine art portrait fresco painting. It is one of the most famous paintings by Raphael painted between 1510 and 1511 as a part of his commission to decorate with frescoes 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 the second painting to be finished there, after La Disputa, on the opposite wall. The picture has long been seen as "Raphael's masterpiece and the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the High Renaissance."