Raphael's Rooms

Papal apartments painted by Raphael and his workshop for Julius II and Leo X. The four stanze—Segnatura, Heliodorus, Fire in the Borgo, and Constantine—unite theology, history, and humanism in luminous color. Highlights include the School of Athens, a manifesto of Renaissance thought, and dramatic narrative scenes like the Expulsion of Heliodorus. A masterclass in perspective, architecture-as-stage, and expressive portraiture.