The School of Athens was painted by Raphael Sanzio between 1510 and 1511 as part of his commission by the Vatican. It depicts a broad range of the philosophers and scholars closely studied both in ancient Greece and during the Renaissance as well. The central figures are Plato and Aristotle, and Raphael used fellow painter Leonardo da Vinci as the model for Aristotle. He also disguised his rival Michelangelo as the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus (sitting alone by himself in the lower middle of the frame, reclining against a block of marble).