RAFFAELLO Sanzio
(b. 1483, Urbino, d. 1520, Roma)

The School of Athens (detail)

1509
Fresco
Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican

Pythagoras, representing Arithmetic, is sitting in the foreground. The two men who are jostling to look over his shoulder recall figures in Leonardo da Vinci's unfinished Adoration of the Magi in the Uffizi. Raphael had occasion to study Leonardo's picture during his stay in Florence.