Grouped scene - naturalistic without characters focused on the primary subject in the middle. Later Dutch Baroque artists will create group scenes without the need to have everyone facing one focal point like they do in Adoration of Baby Jesus scenes.
Pagan scene planned and installed in a sacred place. Well just prior to this Raphael sneaked a peek at the Sistine Chapel where Michelangelo was placing some pagan characters on the ceiling suggesting that even the pagans prophesied Jesus. Raphael's School of Athens fully establishes ancient pagan Humanist philosophy as a building block of Christianity.
While the architecture shown is a church with a Greek cross design, the actual details are clearly Roman which, of course, is where the Vatican is located. Raphael has placed pagan philosophers and pagan sculpture in a contemporary Christian church.
For a discussion of the meaning of the painting and further links go to the wiki article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_A…
