The School of Athens facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

3 Estancia del Sello (Escuela de Atenas)

The famous School of Athens painting.

The School of Athens is a very famous fresco painting by the Italian artist Raphael. He painted it during the exciting time known as the Italian Renaissance, between the years 1510 and 1511. Many people consider this painting to be Raphael's greatest work. It perfectly shows the ideas and spirit of the High Renaissance period.

Raphael was asked to decorate several rooms in the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City. These rooms are now called the Stanze di Raffaello. The School of Athens is one of the amazing frescoes he created for these rooms.

Who Are the People in the Painting?

It's not always clear who all the people in The School of Athens are. However, we know for sure that some of the most famous thinkers, like Plato and Aristotle, are there.

Here is a list of some of the people who might be in the painting:

Raffaello Scuola di Atene numbered

The numbers show who some of the people in the painting might be.

1: Zeno of Citium
2: Epicurus (or maybe Heraclitus and Democritus)
3: Unknown (some think it's Raphael himself!)
4: Boethius, Anaximander, or Empedocles
5: Averroes
6: Pythagoras
7: Alcibiades or Alexander the Great
8: Antisthenes, Xenophon, or Timon
9: Raphael, Fornarina (as love), or Francesco Maria della Rovere
10: Aeschines or Xenophon
11: Parmenides (who looks like Leonardo da Vinci)
12: Socrates
13: Heraclitus (who looks like Michelangelo)
14: Plato (who also looks like Leonardo da Vinci)
15: Aristotle (who looks like Giuliano da Sangallo)
16: Diogenes of Sinope
17: Plotinus (who might look like Donatello)
18: Euclid or Archimedes with students (who might look like Bramante)
19: Strabo or Zoroaster (who looks like Baldassare Castiglione)
20: Ptolemy
R: Apelles (who looks like Raphael)
21: Protogenes (who might look like Il Sodoma, Perugino, or Timoteo Viti)

More Pictures of the Painting

Bramante as Euclid
A close-up of the amazing architecture in the painting.
A mosaic from Pompeii showing Plato's Academy.
The Stanza della Segnatura room where the painting is located.
An older Plato walks next to a younger Aristotle.
Leonardo da Vinci as Plato.
Aristotle.
Anaximander.
Pythagoras and Archimedes.
Archimedes showing his principle.
Aeschines and Socrates.
Michelangelo as Heraclitus.
Diogenes.
Alcibiades or Alexander the Great and Antisthenes or Xenophon.
Possibly Zeno of Citium.
Parmenides.
Averroes and Pythagoras.
Possibly Epicurus or Democritus.

See also

In Spanish: La escuela de Atenas para niños

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The School of Athens Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.