Raphael's School of Athens

At the Vatican Museum. Fresco apparently means "fresh" in Italian. Frescoes are technically not a painting. Colour is mixed into wet plaster and when the plaster dries the painting is actually part of the wall. This method is more durable but much more difficult for the artist as they need to work very quickly and accurately as the image is painted section by section. This work and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel are both frescoes. In the School of Athens, which originally wallpapered the apartments of Pope Julius II, Raphael, being cheeky, pays tribute to the great pre-Christian thinkers like Aristotle, Plato and Sophocles. Our picture isn't that crash hot but if you Google it you should be able to get a good explanation of who's who with a decent picture.