Raphael
One of the frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura is of the greatest importance. This painting is called The School of Athens. It shows a group of learned people from Ancient Greece, philosophers, poets, dramatists, mathematicians and others. They are listening to the central figure, who is the philosopher, Plato. The painting is meant to show that at that time, the early 1500s, there was a new birth of ideas and learning among the people of Rome that was equal to the learning of Ancient Athens.