He selected two viewpoints placed on two horizon lines. The floor and the entire group of people are painted from the upper viewpoint, the vaults and the whole upper portion of the painting from the lower one. If the figures of the people shared the same vanishing point as the lines of the ceiling, then the heads of those positioned further back would be lower down and would be covered by the people standing in the foreground, to the painting's detriment. The vanishing point of the ceiling lines is centered in the right hand of the central figure (Aristotle), who holds a book in his left hand and with his right seems to be pointing to the ground. If we trace a line to this point from the head of Alexander, the first figure to the right of Plato (with the raised hand), it would not be hard to notice how much the last figure of this group must have been reduced. The same goes for the groups to the viewer's right. To conceal this perspectival
57 Raffaello Sanzio, School ofAthens, 1509-10, fresco. Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican, Rome
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