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The School of Athens

"...Raphael received a hearty welcome from Pope Julius, and in the chamber of the Segnatura he painted...Aristotle and Plato, with the Ethicsand Timaeusrespectively, and a group of philosophers in a ring about them. Indescribably fine are those astrologers and geometricians drawing figures and characters with their sextants. ...The next figure, with his back turned and a globe in his hand, is a portrait of Zoroaster (see iconography). Beside him is Raphael himself, drawn with the help of a mirror. He is a very modest-looking young man, of graceful and pleasant mien, wearing a black cap on his head. ...The minor considerations, which are numerous, are well thought out, and the composition of the entire scene, which is admirably portioned out, show Raphael's determination to hold the field, without a rival, against all who wielded the brush. He further adorned his work with a perspective and many figures, so delicately and finely finished that Pope Julius caused all the other works of the other masters, both old and new, to be destroyed, that Raphael alone might have the glory of replacing what had been done."

Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Most Excellent Architects, Painters, and Sculptors,2nd edition, Forence, 1568

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