The School of Athens

Raphael

The defining fresco of the High Renaissance, and a work whose conservation is entirely a question of building environment.

History

What the record shows

Painted for Julius II's private library, the composition gathers the philosophers of antiquity beneath a vaulted architecture of Raphael's invention.

Because the image is the wall, its care is managed through visitor numbers, humidity and air filtration rather than handling.

Provenance

Leonardo da Vinci

Vincent van Gogh

Johannes Vermeer