The School of Athens is a fresco measuring 4 meters high by 7 meters long. It was painted by Raphael between 1509 and 1511 in the Vatican's Stanza della Segnatura. It was Pope Julius II who commissioned this work from him. Julius II was a major patron during his reign and shaped the careers of Raphael and Michelangelo with many commissions. It was under his pontificate that St. Peter's Basilica was rebuilt and the Vatican expanded. He also had several rooms in the palace redecorated, as was the case for the Room of the Signatura. Originally, this space was dedicated to the signing of papal bulls and encyclicals. Julius II decided to transform it into a personal library to store his most precious books. He wanted the decoration to glorify the wisdom of the Catholic Church and praise philosophy, science, and the arts as the solid foundation of his papacy. About fifty philosophers and mathematicians of antiquity are depicted inside a building with superb architecture, corresponding to the design of St. Peter's Basilica sketched by Bramante. The fresco does not only serve to represent the illustrious men of antiquity. By giving them the features of his contemporaries—Plato as da Vinci, Euclid as Bramante, Heraclitus as Michelangelo, for example —the Pope wished to demonstrate the importance of artists in his time. In the lower center of the painting, we notice two figures who, despite their presence, seem completely detached from the scene. The first is none other than Diogenes the Cynic, sprawled in the middle of the stairs, absorbed in his reading and, as usual, completely indifferent to what is happening around him. The second figure is Heraclitus with the features of Michelangelo. It turns out that he was totally absent from the preparatory sketches for the fresco, and for good reason: Raphael did not much care for Michelangelo and had not intended to include him. It seems that a request from Julius II forced the painter to add this figure even though the fresco was already finished. Forced to obey, Raphael therefore depicts Heraclitus with the features of Michelangelo, but completely excludes him from the rest of the group. He is not affiliated with any of the many groups composing the painting and is not dressed in the ancient style like the others. With a little attention, you can recognize the painter himself in the middle of a group of artists, looking at us with a discreet gaze. All these thinkers, mathematicians, and scientists, gathered in one room, exchanging ideas, working, and studying, present to our eyes the dreamed image of an ideal civilization where nothing surpasses the beauty of intelligence. That was the School of Athens in brief.