The Athens Academy, also known as the Athens School, is a mural created by Raphael (1483- 1520), one of the "Three Masters of the Renaissance", which is now in the Raphael Studio of the Vatican Museum in Rome. It has always been recognized as a masterpiece that perfectly embodies the classical spirit of the heyday of the Renaissance. Its theme is "Athens School": a group of famous Greek philosophers gathered around Plato and Aristotle, each with its own unique attitude and engaged in its own academic activities.

In Athens Academy, Raphael gathered all people in different periods in one space, and more than 50 philosophers, artists and scientists from ancient Greece, Rome and contemporary Italy gathered together. Raphael centered on Plato and Aristotle (he painted Plato's face to show his respect for Da Vinci), and spread out to the two wings and prospects, as if he were "performing" a dispute between idealism and materialism in ancient Greece.

In the magnificent hall, the stars of human wisdom are gathered. They are outstanding scholars and thinkers of different times, nationalities, regions and schools. Since ancient times, they have lived in the same room, freely and enthusiastically engaged in academic discussions, filled with the atmosphere of a hundred schools of thought contending, and embodied the essence of human genius and wisdom. The picture composition is grand, and the visual center figures are ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle. More than 50 scholars and celebrities have been drawn around these two great philosophers, each with his own identity and personality characteristics. They represent seven kinds of liberal arts in ancient civilization: grammar, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, geometry, music, astronomy and so on. The painter praised human's pursuit of wisdom and truth, as well as his praise of past civilization and his yearning for future development. We appreciate this masterpiece, just like entering the profound ideological world of human civilization, which was opened by the debate between Plato and Aristotle. The two men came from distant history and argued fiercely while walking. The attitude of opposition from top to bottom clearly expresses their differences in principle in thought. The figures on both sides are combined into stars holding the moon on both sides, and their expressions are moving closer to those two argumentative scholars. Some of them pay attention to listening, and some use gestures to express their views, which strengthens the center of the picture. The central figure in the left group of the picture is Socrates, dressed in robes and facing right, gesturing to explain his philosophical views; The young man in a white cloak who turned to look at the world coldly was Francisco, the grand duke of Ullbin, the hometown of the painter. The bald old man sitting on the steps behind the archduke is a great mathematician Pythagoras, and the teenagers around him wrote "harmony" and mathematical scale on the board; The old man behind him looked intently at Pythagoras' argument, ready to record it at any time; The man who leaned forward and looked at it with a white turban is said to be a Muslim scholar, Aviloy; In the lower left corner of the picture, the man lying on the pillar pier and wearing laurel is writing something attentively. Some people are designated as the master of grammar Epicurus; In the painting, the man sitting on the foreground steps, holding his face in his left hand, is a materialist philosopher democritus while meditating; Behind him stood a man who turned his head to Pythagoras. He pointed at the book with one hand as if to prove something. He is a rhetorician, Saint Nolcke.

There is a half-naked old man lying on the steps in the center of the picture. He is the cynic philosopher Dione. This school holds that everything is insignificant except natural needs, so this scholar usually wears rags to cover himself and lives in a broken wooden box. The right half of the picture is divided into several groups. The central figure of the foreground theme group is an old man, who is a geometrician Euclid. He is bending down to make geometric figures on the slate with a compass, which has aroused the interest of several young scholars. The man behind Euclid holding astronomical instruments with his back to the audience is an astronomer Ptolemy: the bearded old man opposite is bramante, the artistic director of Vatican and Raphael's hometown; The man in a white robe and a small hat is the painter Sodoma. Behind Sodoma, only half a head and neck are exposed, and the painter Raphael himself is looking at us from the side.

During the Renaissance, painters were best at depicting people who revered or cursed themselves in their paintings. They also liked to paint themselves in their paintings to show their attitude towards the events in the paintings or to sign their names on their behalf. The mural painter skillfully uses the arch as the natural frame of the picture. The background is decorated with St. Peter's Church designed by bramante, with opposite sides. The characters in the painting seem to come out of the long and high corridor, and the perspective makes the picture look tall and far-reaching. The straight line of the building colonnade blends with the dynamic curve of the characters, and the picture is both rigid and flexible, with statues standing on both sides, which makes the picture full of profound classical culture. The painter makes good use of the steps, so that many characters are combined in an orderly way, which is real and lively, and the picture brings the viewer into the ranks of sages. This grand scene, numerous figures, vivid gestures and expressions, and the harmonious, changing and unified rhythm of layout have developed painting creation to the peak of the Renaissance.