Raffaello Sanzio was born in 1483 and he died as early as in 1520. Raphael started his career in Florence, but in 1508 he came to Rome since he got an invitation from the Pope Julius II. Raphael was asked to paint four rooms in the Pope’s private area in the Vatican state.

Raphael painted the first room entirely by himself, but the remaining three rooms were probably painted more and more by his pupils. The fourth room was painted after Raphael died, but in accordance to his sketches. Perhaps the most famous painting made by Raphael can be found in the room called Stanza della Segnatura, the famous painting The school of Athens.

It is said that when Raphael saw Michelangelo’s paintings in the roof of the Sistine Chapel he was astonished, just as all other people in Rome were. He was so impressed by the paintings that he returned to his School of Athens and painted an additional person amongst all the scientists that appear in the wallpainting: Heraclitus from Efesos. The school of Athens had been done for some years and the addition of a lonely man with dark hair, beard and with a flat nose with a pen in his hand seems to be a portrait of Michelangelo.