How to read ‘The School of Athens’ – a triumph of Renaissance art

In this instalment of the YouTube series Great Art Explained, the UK curator, gallerist and video essayist James Payne provides a rich and rewarding tour of The School of Athens (1509-11) by Raphael – a Renaissance masterpiece from one of the era’s most dynamic and visionary artists. Payne sets the fresco in the context of its location in what was then the Pope’s private library at the Vatican, where it represented philosophy as a pillar of human knowledge, alongside companion frescoes depicting theology, poetry and law. He also places the painting in the wider history of ideas, showing how Raphael’s meticulous staging sought to unify Classical and Christian thought, presenting the empirical and the metaphysical not as adversaries but as equal partners in the ceaseless human pursuit of truth.