Stanza della Segnatura

The first of Pope Julius II's rooms in the papal appartments to be decorated with Raphael's frescoes was the study in which the "Signatura gratiae" tribunal was originally located (Stanza della Segnatura). The artist's concept brings into harmony the spirits of Antiquity and Christianity.

The humanist quadripartition of culture - theology, philosophy, poetry and justice - has a parallel in the four elements making up the universe: air, water, fire and earth. Each of these is represented by an allegorical painting on the walls of this room: the Disputation of the Holy Sacrament, the School of Athens, the Parnassus and the Virtues (Fortitude, Prudence, Temperance), respectively.

The first composition Raphael executed in 1509 is the so-called Disputa or Disputation of the Holy Sacrament, the traditional name for what is really an Adoration of the Sacrament. Toward the end of 1509, Raphael began work on the wall opposite the Disputa. This second fresco, entitled the School of Athens, represents the truth acquired through reason. Raphael began the third composition at the end of 1509 or the beginning of 1510. It represents Parnassus, the dwelling place of Apollo and the Muses and the home of poetry, according to classical myth. The two scenes on the fourth wall, executed by the workshop, and the lunette above it, containing the Cardinal Virtues, were painted in 1511.