Raphael Sanza's fresco, The School of Athens, has come to symbolize the marriage of art, philosophy, and science. It is located in the first of four rooms in the Palace of the Vatican designed by Raphael, the Stanza Della Segnatura.

The School of Athens personifies all the greatest mathematicians, philosophers, and scientists from classical antiquity gathered together, sharing their ideas and learning from each other. These figures all lived at different times, but they are together under one roof.

The two thinkers in the center, Aristotle (on the right) and Plato (on the left, pointing up), have generally been enormously critical to Western thinking. Historians argue that their divide in perspectives, placed at the center, is the core theme of the painting.

The great mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy is next to Euclid, with his back to the viewer on the lower right. Wearing a yellow robe, he holds a terrestrial globe in his hand. It's thought that the bearded man standing in front of him holding a celestial sphere is the astronomer Zoroaster. 

The School of Athens was a success, bringing Raphael subsequent commissions by the pope and making him one of the most sought-after artists in Rome. Though his life was short—he died in 1520 at age 37—his impact has endured over the centuries.