Vatican Museums (Italian: Musei Vaticani) are the public art and sculpture museums in the Vatican City. The four Raphael Rooms (Stanze di Raffaello) are famous for their frescoes painted by Raphael and his workshop, marking the High Renaissance in Rome.
The four Raphael Rooms are the Sala di Costantino (Hall of Constantine), the Stanza di Eliodoro (Room of Heliodorus), the Stanza della Segnatura (Room of the Signatura), and the Stanza dell'Incendio del Borgo (The Room of the Fire in the Borgo).
The largest room is the Sala di Costantino. Its paintings were not begun until Pope Julius and, indeed Raphael himself, had died. The room is dedicated to the victory of Christianity over paganism.
The frescoes of the Stanza di Eliodoro were painted between 1511 and 1514. The theme of this private chamber was the heavenly protection granted by Christ to the Church.
The Stanza della Segnatura was the first of the rooms to be decorated, and The School of Athens, representing philosophy, was painted between 1509 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate the rooms.
The painting is notable for its accurate perspective projection, which Raphael learned from Leonardo da Vinci. This work has long been seen as ‘Raphael's masterpiece and the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the Renaissance’.
The Stanza dell'incendio del Borgo was named for the Fire in the Borgo fresco which depicts Pope Leo IV making the sign of the cross to extinguish a raging fire in the Borgo district of Rome near the Vatican.
